Once is Enough II
by Sanae
Summary: Something from the past is about to catch up with Heero and Relena.
1. Chapter One

**Disclaimer:**

Sanae: HA HA HA HA!!! I DO! I OWN GUNDAM WING! I ACTUALLY OWN ALL THE GUNDAMS!!! THEY'RE ALL MINE!!!

Nurse: Doctor! Poor thing…she thinks she owns the Gundams…

Doctor: Oh gosh! Not another one! Put her with the rest and give her a dose of Valium…What the heck is going on? It just looks like an endemic!

Author note (Post-Valium): Well, as promised, there you go with the first chapter of 'Once is Enough' 's sequel. I hope you will like it! You will see that the chapters are a bit longer than the first part…just to please the nice people who suggested longer chapters…Well, read and enjoy! (I hope :-) )

**Once is Enough II**

Chapter One

Relena was leaving yet another conference. This one had been particularly boring. Yes, discussing farming treaties was definitely not the best think a girl could do on a Saturday morning. The latest topic of discussion was the quantities of milk each colony and Earth itself were allowed to produce. Relena did not really understand why this could be a matter of discussion at all. In any case, she was happy that she had been able to convince everybody to agree with the figures she had proposed.

She was almost by her car when someone called her.

"Minister Yuy…Minister Yuy…".

It took a couple of seconds for Relena to realise the person was actually calling her. Yuy. Of course, that was her married name. She was still getting used to it. Well, it had been only a couple of months. Is not like she had had too many chances to hear herself being called by her surname anyway, most people just called her Relena. She preferred it to Minister, Representative, Highness, Princess and all of those horrible titles she hated so much.

She turned around and found a short woman walking towards her. The woman informed her that she had forgotten to pick up the minutes from the meeting and, with a nice smile, handled her the dossier.

After thanking her and returning the smile, Relena got inside the car. Sitting down, she looked at her left hand. Seeing her wedding band she started thinking of all the events that lead to her wedding day.

After almost two years of treatment, the doctors had managed to achieve an almost complete recovery of Heero's memory. He now remembered everyone and everything that happened before the Mars incident. Well, almost everything. Heero still did not know about the baby's loss. Relena had decided then not to tell him and now that he was back to normal, she did not want to upset him.

In any case, a few months ago, the doctors had decided that Heero was well enough to start a normal life. After a careful consideration, Heero decided that he wanted to start his own business and had opened a flying school. He was now training the future civil shuttle pilots and was also helping the ex-soldiers to convert their skills from the military to the civil aviation.

He refused the help that Relena and the others offered him and, with a lot of effort from his side, managed to set up his business. After not too long, he started doing really well, in fact there were lots of people that wanted to become shuttle pilots, specially now, in this peaceful world, lots of ex-soldiers were trying to get back to the civil life as quickly as possible. This, combined with the fact that Heero was probably the best pilot on ESUN, made him extremely popular and his school was getting to be very famous with many students enrolling every day. So famous that Heero ended up hiring some staff to help him with the training.

After seeing his business in such a good shape, Heero decided he was worthy enough to ask Relena to marry him. The way he'd asked her had been almost hilarious. Relena would have got offended if it had not been Heero popping the question.

He had just come back from a seminar and Relena had just been in another of her endless meetings and was pretty tired. They still lived together but Heero had moved to another section of the palace so he would have a bit of privacy.

He went to meet her in her office and, standing there, started his 'monologue' as she liked to remember:

"Relena. I need to speak to you but I do not want you to interrupt till I am finished. This is because I am useless with words and if you interrupt me I will forget what I want to tell you and then I will mess things up again. Is that ok?".

"Sure…go ahead, please…" replied Relena getting a bit concerned.

"Well. I have been thinking. We have been going out for a while and I don't think we have been doing so as friends. I really think you are the only person I have allowed to be as close to me as you are. I haven't asked before because I wanted to have a certain amount of independence but, now, I think I have so, I think we should get married…" said Heero.

Relena just sat there not knowing what to say. It was true that they had been going out for a while. They had kissed a few times and the odd demonstrations of affection for each other were not entirely missing from their relationship but Relena had seen it the whole thing as a mere experiment, as part of the treatment to get Heero back to normal. She thought that, since he had never told her that he loved her, Heero just saw her as some kind of very close friend. Relena was still madly in love with him but had prepared herself for this kind of bizarre friendship to last forever. Hearing this 'proposal' she was just shocked. It probably was the least romantic marriage proposal ever but Relena was so happy she just did not know what to say.

Heero, not seeing any reply started getting worried. He was about to say something when Relena replied.

"Yes Heero. I agree with you. I will be very happy to be your wife…" said trying to be as calm as he was. Of course, she did not succeed as much as she wanted but again, Heero was still very much the Perfect emotionless Solider so it was normal no one could beat him at being calm.

Heero's mouth curved in some kind of smile.

"Ok then. It's decided…" he said and then he left the room leaving Relena even more shocked. 'That was it? Nothing more?' Relena thought. Then she reminded herself that this was Heero and that was the way he behaved.

She was about to get back to her papers when Heero came in the room looking almost embarrassed.

"Sorry. I forgot this…" said Heero walking towards her, bending and kissing her. Then he gave her a black little box and said, "Now, this is what I am supposed to give you, isn't it? If you don't like it, let me know, we can go and change it…".

Relena opened the box to reveal a beautiful diamond solitaire. Heero stared at her as in waiting for a reply.

"It's perfect. Thank you Heero…" said Relena feeling that her voice was beginning to fade from the sheer load of emotions she was feeling.

"Good. Glad you like it…Now, this evening I have to go back to my office to check a few things so don't wait for me for dinner…" Heero said like they had just had another of their normal, every day conversations.

Once she recovered from the shock, she stared at the diamond solitaire and decided to put it on. It looked really nice on her. If something, Heero had a nice taste with jewellery. Relena smiled to herself.

As soon as she could, she told Lucrezia and Milliardo about the engagement. Lucrezia and Milliardo were concerned about the whole thing since they saw how strange Relena and Heero's relationship was. Milliardo, not knowing how to tackle the problem, decided to ask Lucrezia to speak to her.

Lucrezia had to laugh at Milliardo's inadequacy when it came to simple things like feelings and all, in fact Milliardo was very much like Heero in some ways but, of course, Lucrezia was not about to tell him that. In any case, Lucrezia called Relena that same night.

"Lu! What's wrong? We just spoke this morning!" said Relena when she replied to the videocom's buzz.

"I'm sorry!" replied Lucrezia pretending to be offended.

"I was just teasing you! Is everything alright? Zach? Is he alright? " asked Relena getting worried about her almost year old nephew.

"Yes Zach is ok, Is just that…Milliardo and I are a bit worried about what you told us this morning…you know about you and Heero getting married…I mean, we are just not too sure that it may be good for you to take such step…I mean, Heero is…" said Lucrezia trying be as tactful as possible.

"I know what you mean. Lucrezia, I appreciate your concern and I realise how odd it may seem to you but, although Heero may not speak about his feelings very often, not even to me, I am sure we will be able to make each other happier than anyone else can. I love him and I am absolutely sure of that. And, I am sure that Heero loves me in his own way. Lucrezia, I rather have Heero loving me 50 than anyone else loving me 100, I know you all consider me crazy for loving him so much but, I feel that we do belong to each other…I am very happy that he has asked me to marry him and that he wants to spend the rest of his life with me. This is a dream coming true for me. I only ask from you that, if you are not going to be happy about it, at least let us be. Please…" Relena said getting obviously emotional about it.

"Ok…I see how you feel…at the end of the day, I should be the last person to criticise you…I followed your brother all around ESUN and I even accepted moving to Mars so I could be with him. I fully understand your point of view…I just would like to say that, please be careful…I don't want you to get hurt…" said Lucrezia with a motherly smile.

"Thanks for your help…Please help me to make understand the whole thing to my brother, will you?" asked Relena hopeful.

"Sure…" replied Lucrezia.

After a quick chitchat they finished the conversation.

Three months later, Relena was walking up the aisle. She was wearing a beautiful wedding dress that had been designed using the same pattern used for the Queen of Sank's. She was also wearing the tiara that two years ago had tried to give to Lucrezia. She was quite a sight. Everyone of the guests, specially the male ones, thought that she was the prettiest thing they had ever seen. To Relena though, the best compliment came from Heero himself.

"You look like an angel".

Those five words meant the world to Relena. A few hours later they were taking off for their honeymoon in the Caribbean.

Relena woke up from her daydreaming. Paygan had been calling her since they had been parked outside the Peacecraft palace for quite a while.

"Mrs Relena? Are you ok? I have called you several times…" said Paygan getting worried.

"Sorry…I was just distracted. I was thinking of my wedding day…" replied Relena honestly.

Relena went into the house hearing Paygan saying something about how sweet newlyweds could be. That made her smile.

She found Heero in their living room and, after greeting her, said:

"Relena, you should call Hilde. She called you a few minutes ago and I think she looked a bit upset…".

END OF CHAPTER ONE


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Relena headed to the videocom placed in her office. Heero had said that Hilde sounded a bit upset. Relena knew that it had to be pretty big to upset someone like Hilde. They had become very close friends after Hilde, just before her wedding, confessed to the dark blonde girl that she did not have any girlfriends that could act as her bridesmaid. Relena had been honoured to fulfil such an important role in the whole thing. From that day onwards, the two girls had kept in touch regularly and were best friends, so good that Relena had repaid by asking Hilde to be her bridesmaid as well.

After a few instants, the videocom's screen lightened up to show Hilde's worried face.

"Ah! Relena, thank goodness it's you…" said the brunette as soon as she saw who was calling her.

"What's wrong sweetie?" asked Relena seeing her friend's concerned expression.

"I just came back from the doctor…do you remember they had to do some tests?" replied Hilde making visible efforts not to cry.

"Yes…they were just normal gynaecological checks, weren't they?" enquired Relena.

"Yeah…well, they think they know why I cannot conceive…" said Hilde starting to cry.

"Baby… why is that?" asked Relena with her softest tone of voice.

"You see…they say that some trauma I suffered in the past has damaged the uterus and that would make it very difficult for me to get pregnant…I actually know that it was the injures I got when escaping from Libra, I'm sure of that…" said Hilde with a very small voice.

Relena was shocked…from all couples why them? Duo and Hilde were the best couple she knew and the people she thought of when she read the word 'parents'. Relena had always thought that they were the perfect mix, Duo was just a big kid that surely would know how to play with his kids for endless hours and Hilde was the most sensible person she had ever met, she would make a perfect mother. Also, from all the group, these two were the only ones that, even all the things that had happened during the war, had not lost the humanity required to be just normal people.

"Baby, have you told Duo?" asked Relena carefully not wanting to upset her even further.

"NO! I don't know how…I mean, he's been wanting to be a father so badly…I just don't know how he is going to take it all…He was so upset with me when I got injured…He's going to blame me…and…what if…what if he leaves me? He's got every right to do so…" replied Hilde.

"What? Hilde, don't say such stupid things…Firstly, Duo is NOT going to leave you. He just loves you too much to do something like that. Secondly, it is not absolutely impossible for you to become parents. Even if the medicine fails to get you pregnant, you can still adopt a child, can't you? I know that is not quite the same than feeling it inside you but, it is still a child that needs all the love you guys have to offer…Duo would be a giant bastard if he left you…but, like I said, he's not going to…I promise you that…" said Relena looking at her friend very seriously.

"Damn…Now I know what Duo means when he says that if they let you, you would sell ice to the Eskimos…" said Hilde cheering up a little bit.

Relena laughed at that joke, as usual, when she was trying to convince people, she put that very politician-like voice of hers.

"Now, smile and be confident…You've got a great man there…I'm sure he will not only understand but he'll also be extremely supportive…" Relena said firmly.

"Ok…Duo's going to be home any minute now…I better leave you now…" said Hilde looking a little better.

"Sure. Take care and call me if you need to…" said Relena.

With this they ended the conversation. Relena stayed for a minute in her office thinking. Life was really unfair. Two wonderful people and they had these kind of problems. Of course, her own life was far from being ideal. Ever since she had married Heero nothing in their relationship had actually changed. She hid it from everyone but the reality was that, besides the odd kiss and the hugs sometimes they shared, their marital life was next to non existent.

The truth is that Relena herself had not even gone anywhere near forcing it. She just did not know how to make it happen. She was totally clueless regarding these matters. Of course, her only experience had been ages ago and she still had to think really hard to remember what had happened that night. At this rate, nothing would actually happen between her and Heero…

She decided to get up and go to check on the dinner. There was no use wasting so much time thinking about something she had no answers for. Relena felt alone like never before. She did not know who to turn to for advice. Lucrezia and Milliardo where totally out of the question, Relena feared that they would be disappointed and Milliardo would tell her that he had warned her. With Sally she did not really feel like telling her such intimate things.

And Hilde…after what her friend had told her, Relena did not think it was the right time to tell her anything at all. Relena sighted while she was walking towards the palace's kitchen.

Meanwhile, in L2, Duo had finally arrived home. He was really tired after a hard day working in his and Hilde's scrap yard. As soon as he entered the living room he saw Hilde sitting there absorbed in her thoughts.

"Hi hon…how did the doctor's appointment go?" asked Duo sitting by his wife's side.

"Duo…I don't have good news I'm afraid…"said Hilde looking at him with a sad smile.

Duo just nodded and made a gesture to make her understand that he wanted her to go ahead.

Hilde explained to Duo what she had explained earlier to Relena.

"Did they say if there were any chances at all?" asked Duo holding his wife's hand with one of his and passing his free arm around Hilde's shoulders.

"Yes. There is a medical treatment I have to follow but the chances are still small…They said that, even if I do get pregnant, the biggest problem is to keep me pregnant…there is a very big risk of miscarriage…" explained Hilde.

"Well baby…You know what I think about these things. You know that I wanted very badly to be a father but, if I have learned in this life is that you cannot have everything…I already got to be with you…and, besides, is not the end of the world…there are many orphans looking for a good house and a pair of loving parents…and, we still have one another…"said Duo looking more seriously than Hilde had ever seen him before.

"You're not going to leave me?" asked Hilde with a mix of fear and shock.

"WHAT? Are you nuts? Of course I'm not going to leave you…baby, I love you…When I married you I married the beautiful person you are, not a baby machine!" said Duo offended.

"Well, I thought that…" started saying Hilde.

"No…you did not think of anything… is the only reasonable explanation I can find to justify you saying such a stupid thing…Baby, really, did you honestly think I would leave you? What kind of bastard would do something like that?" asked Duo shocked.

"I'm sorry…" said Hilde crying.

"Look, let's forget about this. Now, I'm sorry today I could not come with you. Next time I'm coming with you and we will see what we can do. The two of us together. This is the way we will fight this, ok? Now, I don't want you crying…Where is that gorgeous smile of yours, huh?" said Duo with his trademark grin back where it belonged.

Hilde could not help smiling. Relena was right, she was really lucky having Duo as her husband…

Hilde and Duo spent the rest of the night doing their favourite routine: ordered pizza, cokes and a giant sized tub of ice cream, watched horrible TV programmes and had a pop corn fight…

After dinner, Relena was standing in the balcony getting some fresh air before going to bed. She was so taken by her own thoughts she did not realise that Heero had followed her there.

"Relena…" she heard the so familiar monotone voice startling her.

"Yes Heero…" replied without turning around.

"What are you doing here?" asked Heero.

"Nothing. Just thinking…" replied Relena still not turning to face him.

"Thinking of what?" insisted Heero.

What was this? From all days he had to pick today to get chatty…

"Nothing specific…just random things…" replied Relena not knowing what else to say.

"I see..." said Heero.

Then Relena heard his steps and it looked like he was leaving her alone. Relena was about to feel relieved when she heard him stopping just before the French doors.

From there, Heero asked her the last thing Relena would have expected.

"Relena, why don't we make love like other couples do?".

END OF CHAPTER TWO


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

"Sorry I'm late…Got caught up in the traffic…" said Dorothy as she entered one of the new trendy cafes that had recently opened in this sector of the colony.

"That's ok…just been here a few minutes myself…" replied Trowa starting to get up.

"Oh no, no…sit back down. I've had enough chivalry in my life to last me a lifetime…" said the platinum blond girl sitting down herself.

"Sorry…" said Trowa a bit embarrassed. This girl always confused him. In any case, Trowa decided to go straight to the point and, after Dorothy had asked for a café latte, he said:

"Well, so, where should we start…".

At the same time, a blond guy stood on the opposite side of the road looking at the two engaged in what it seemed a very intense conversation.

'I knew it…I have fully blown it this time…but, from all people…why him?' the man thought.

Making an effort, Quatre Raberba Winner started walking to get as far away as possible from that place.

He promptly found Rashid waiting for him next to the limo that had been rented for their stay in this colony. Officially, Quatre was there to attend a trade conference. Unofficially, he had known that Dorothy would have been there so he decided to see what she was up to.

Now that he knew he felt like flying to Saturn and never come back. It was his own fault for raising his hopes. 'Get real…why a girl like her would pick a guy like you?' Quatre kept torturing himself.

All of this had started right after Lucrezia and Milliardo's wedding. When Dorothy had hosted them in her residence. After a quick chat, since they were tired, they all went to bed. Even so, Quatre had found it rather difficult to fall asleep so he had decided to take a quick stroll around the garden.

There he found Dorothy sitting on a stone bench. He was quite surprised to find her there but he did not complain. This might have been the chance he was waiting for.

He asked for her permission to sit by her side and she had accepted. They started chatting about trivial things till both decided it was cold and they went inside. There Dorothy offered him a drink and he asked for a tea. Dorothy had a glass of wine and another, and another. Soon enough she was way beyond tipsy so Quatre took her to her room. As he was putting her in bed, Dorothy reached for Quatre's face and forced him to kiss her. Well, at the beginning she was forcing him, after a few seconds Quatre started kissing her back. Had it not been for Quatre's strong sense of honour, they would have ended up making love, but, Quatre stopped them from doing anything 'stupid' because she was drunk and he felt she was in no condition to know what she really wanted. Quatre tucked her in bed and, wishing her good night, quietly left the room.

After that night, Quatre felt incredibly embarrassed. He had been very adventurous with the moonlight but, with the cold morning light coming through his window, he decided that he had done a very wrong thing and he did not know how to fix it.

He left the room thinking what to do when he found Trowa and Dorothy having breakfast. Quatre did not know what to say so he chose to keep quiet and to leave everything unsaid till after breakfast. Then he had got a videocall from Rashid. The man was asking Quatre to go back to L4 urgently. There had been an accident in one of the mineral satellites and Quatre needed to get back a.s.a.p. Apologising for the inconvenient and thanking for the hospitality, Quatre left Trowa and Dorothy alone.

Then, things had just gone crazy with his business and his role as colony representative and Quatre had not seen Dorothy again till Duo's wedding. He got there to find Dorothy with another gentleman escorting her.

Quatre felt devastated but still said nothing. Then, during Heero's wedding, Quatre had tried to approach Dorothy again. He still remembered their conversation:

"Hello Dorothy…how are you?".

"I'm very well, thank you…" replied the girl politely.

"Ah…I see…I was meaning to call you…" started Quatre.

"And I was going to hold my breath…" replied Dorothy sarcastically.

"Dorothy?" asked a shocked Quatre thinking that surely she had not meant that.

"Quatre, look, I don't have time now…Sorry, I think that Relena needs me now…Excuse me…" said Dorothy leaving a startled Quatre.

Quatre did not understand why Dorothy was so upset with him. He did not understand anything anymore. Rashid was right, women were difficult creatures. Better off without them…'Who are you trying to fool?' Quatre scolded himself. He had admitted a long time ago that he held very dear feelings towards the long haired, blond girl.

He tried to speak to her a few times during the wedding but, somehow, she had managed to avoid him during the entire do, mainly by talking to or dancing with his best friend, Trowa.

Now, after he had seen the two of them in the café, it had come all clear. Trowa and Dorothy were together. And there was nothing he could do about it.

Quatre tried very hard not to look as upset as he felt. He did not want Rashid doing a full interrogation. Although Quatre was grateful for all Rashid did for him, sometimes the older man was a bit overprotective and Quatre felt suffocated by him.

The blond Arabian arrived to the conference building and, making an effort, tried to concentrate in his business.

After a few hours, Quatre left the conference building to find the last person he would have wanted to see, standing by his car in the parking lot, obviously waiting for him: Trowa Barton.

"Hi there…" said Trowa seeing the blond man.

"What do you want?" asked Quatre directly forgetting all about manners.

"Hey man…what's wrong?" asked a very surprised Trowa.

"It's funny you, from all people, ask me that…you should know what is wrong…" replied Quatre trying, and failing, to control his anger.

"Where are you going?" asked Trowa seeing that his friend was about to leave.

"Well, I'm sorry but, unlike you, I don't have time to play around…" replied Quatre cynically.

"Quatre…" started saying Trowa grabbing one of the Arabian man's arms.

Quatre turned around freed himself and, without thinking twice lifted his fist and connected it with the left side of Trowa's face almost sending him to the ground. Shocking Rashid, the limo driver and, chiefly, Trowa in the process.

Thankfully Trowa's balance was really good so he did not fall. He touched the side that had received the punch and looked at Quatre bewildered.

"Quatre, since I am your friend, I will skip this and I will allow you the benefit of explaining to me why you've hit me…" said Trowa with his calmest voice. Quatre saw that Trowa was making a tremendous effort not to hit him back.

"My friend? You're no friend of mine! Friends do not steal girls from one another!" shouted Quatre.

"What? What the hell are you talking about?" said Trowa even more confused.

"Dorothy, I'm talking about Dorothy…man, you know I love her…why did you have to get in the way…" replied Quatre still shouting.

"What? Dorothy? Man, you're not making any sense…" said Trowa still not understanding anything.

"I've seen you…today, in the café, you were talking and she was holding your hand…and during Heero's wedding you two spent the whole time together…" explained Quatre.

"Ah! I see…you're fucking nuts you know that? Dorothy is helping me. I asked her for help during Heero's wedding. I'm looking for someone, and I asked her if she would give me a hand…" said Trowa.

"What? Why didn't you ask me for help?" asked Quatre now being his turn to get confused.

"Because it was a very private thing and I felt embarrassed about it…" admitted Trowa.

"Why is that? Nothing you could do would be embarrassing…I would have understood…" said Quatre.

"Well, allow me to have some doubts about it. At the end of the day it's not me that has jumped into stupid conclusions without even checking…Quatre, really, I thought it was more Heero's style, you know, hit first, ask later…" said Trowa touching his face again, it was getting swollen and it would have a nasty bruise soon.

"I'm sorry…is just that I love her so much but I think I've fucked everything up with her. I don't know what to do…and then when I've seen you two in the café…I just did not see anything clear anymore…" tried to apologise Quatre now looking very worried.

Trowa almost laughed. This man was unbelievable, he could be the kindest man on ESUN but, if you pissed him off, man, you just had to run as fast as you could…he could be scarier than Heero.

"Well, why don't you try talking to her. I think you would have a nice surprise if you do…" said Trowa almost smiling.

"Do you think so? Really? Is just that I don't know what to say…" said Quatre.

"Well, you just have to say four simple words. Try with 'Dorothy, I love you'. Those tend to do the trick…" said Trowa sounding convinced.

"I don't know… I will try anyway…" said Quatre feeling slightly better.

"Ok. You'll do that…in any case, I was coming to see you because I've been trying to call you but your assistant told me that you were here in L3…Just wanted to spend sometime with you taking the chance you were here but…I think you better go to the Excelsior hotel…you have some business there…say room 404…"said Trowa starting to leave.

"Trowa…Thank you…" said Quatre.

"You're welcome…in any case I expect to be at least your best man…after this punch you will have to be real good to me if you expect me to forgive you…" said Trowa while walking out the parking lot.

Quatre was so ashamed that he hardly could look at Rashid in the eye. His behaviour with Trowa had been abominable. He still could not believe that he had hit Trowa. He was definitely nuts.

In any case, Quatre asked the driver to take him to the Excelsior hotel. Once there, he asked the receptionist, a nice good looking girl with this huge smile, to call room 404 for him.

The girl passed the receiver to him once the guest in room 404 had answered the phone.

"Dorothy? Is Quatre here…Trowa told me I would find you here. Would you mind to come downstairs for a minute…I have something to tell you…" said Quatre really nervous.

"Why…Quatre…sure. I'll be down in a minute…" replied Dorothy obviously surprised.

Quatre waited in the lobby for a few minutes. Then one of the elevator's doors opened and Dorothy stepped out of it. She was so beautiful…Quatre felt like running away…He was never going to be brave enough as to carry on with Trowa's suggestion.

"Hello Quatre. How are you?" asked Dorothy smiling gently.

"I'm fine thank you. How about you?" replied Quatre.

"What is it that you need to tell me?" asked Dorothy not wanting to hear all those pleasantries.

"Wait, not here…come with me…please" said Quatre taking one of her hands and leading her to the half deserted bar.

"I cannot find any other, more suitable way to tell you this, so I will say it the simplest way: Dorothy, I love you and I don't want to see you with any other man but me. If you will have me, that is…" said Quatre in one single sentence and not leaving himself time to think twice.

Dorothy just stood there not saying anything. Quatre began to think that he had made a huge mistake when he saw Dorothy's mouth curving in a big smile. It was really strange because her eyes were sparkling with unshed tears.

"I was about to give up on you, you know?" said Dorothy.

"Why?" asked Quatre.

"Because I thought you ignored me purposely. I have tried every trick in the book but everything failed…after that night in my house, when we kissed, I hoped we would sleep together but you left me there all by myself, then during breakfast you just ignored me totally, then you had to leave and I did not hear from you till I saw you during Hilde's wedding. I even brought a distant cousin of mine thinking that it would have made you jealous and you would have reacted…then during Relena's wedding, when you approached me, I tried to be cold and distant to see if you did something about it but that did not work either…Thank goodness Trowa was there, otherwise I would have got drunk and I would have made a fool of myself…" explained Dorothy.

"We've been running from each other, haven't we?" said Quatre smiling sadly.

"It seems that way to me…" replied Dorothy.

Then Quatre took a couple of steps towards Dorothy, then, taking her face with his two hands, kissed her. She kissed him back. The few people in the bar stared at them with unhidden interest. The young couple could not care less.

After a while, they stopped kissing and Quatre asked her:

"Dorothy, earlier on Trowa told me you are helping him to find someone. Who are you trying to find?".

"I don't know for sure who she is but, her name is Midii Une…" replied the girl.

END OF CHAPTER THREE


	4. Chapter Four

A/N: First of all, thank you to all reviewers, I'm happy to see some familiar names there…that means that some people have decided to stay faithful to the story and, hopefully, they will read it till the end...That makes me incredibly happy and motivated to finish it as soon as I can... What takes me to the second point, I'm so sorry I have not updated in ages, I had been visiting my parents in Barcelona and as soon as I got back home I got one of my bronchitis so I've been too sick to get anywhere near the computer…anyway, I'm almost recovered now so I will update with my usual rhythm now…thanks for the patience.

Chapter Four

Relena turned around astonished. She would have been less shocked if Heero had presented himself with an axe stuck in his head.

"Excuse me?" Relena said finally finding her voice.

"You heard me" replied Heero not changing his tone of voice one bit.

"Well…yes, but…why?" stuttered Relena hiding her face from his cold blue stare.

"I want to know if there is any specific reason…" replied Heero with his usual logic.

Relena was fervently trying to build up a sentence that would make sense. Heero had made huge progresses with his therapy but, honestly, Relena did not think he had gone that far…She was about to reply something sensible when Heero, getting closer to her lifted her face so she was forced to look up at him.

"Why don't you answer to me?" asked Heero looking at her coldly.

The blond girl was almost scared. How Heero could have this kind of conversation keeping so cold, she would never know. She discarded her sensible arguments and just accepted the truth:

"I don't know what to say…I don't know…".

"Well. I have made up an opinion of mine…." Replied Heero.

"And what is that?" asked Relena thinking if he had realised his hand was still holding her head.

"I think that you are disgusted of the idea…" replied Heero plainly.

Relena's shock was growing out of measure. Disgusted? Her? Why? There were so many questions coming into her head that she felt almost hysterical. She would have laughed had it not been because Heero's eyes, cold and serious, were locked on with hers.

"Heero…I have no idea where you got that idea from…Honestly. I am not disgusted of you in the slightest…I just…" said Relena interrupting herself not wanting to admit what caused her so much pain. The fact that she thought that the new Heero was as much interested about lovemaking as the old one and that the brief episode they had shared was an isolated case.

"Just what?" insisted Heero.

"I thought you did not want to…" there, she had finally said it. Relena pushed Heero's hand away and, free from his grasp just took a couple of steps back only to find one of the balcony's columns.

Not hearing anything, she just stood there thinking that she had been right all this time and, he did not want to make love. Relena was expecting to leave when she felt two arms surrounding her and lifting her from the floor.

"Heero?" asked Relena seeing that the man had every intention of carrying her somewhere.

"Heero? Where are you taking me?" Relena insisted not getting an answer to her previous question.

"I'm taking you to bed. With me. Is that a problem?" asked Heero still carrying her.

Relena was so astonished that she only managed to shake her head.

"Good" replied Heero.

"Trowa? Were you sleeping?" asked Quatre.

"Well, yes Quatre…" replied the Trowa stating the obvious since he was still in his pyjamas having been awaken by the buzz of the videocom.

"I'm sorry…isn't it early to go to bed? Is just four pm…" commented Quatre.

"Quatre, as much as I enjoy our chitchats, I don't think you're my wake up call…are you? In any case I happen to be sleeping now because we have three shows tonight and I need the rest…" said Trowa yawning trying not to appear as irritated as he was.

"Oh, I'm sorry…I better let you sleep then…" said Quatre.

"Doesn't matter…now I'm awake…what's up? I thought we had sorted everything this morning…" said Trowa patiently sitting on a chair next to the videocom screen.

"Well…I actually have to thank you for the advise…Dorothy and I are going out tonight for dinner…I think we have finally made clear each other feelings…" explained the blond man.

"I'm happy for you man…but, I really hope this is not why you're calling me…" said Trowa still yawning.

"No, it is not. Is just that Dorothy has told me that you are looking for a girl called Midii Une…I just thought I could ask you…" said Quatre.

"Quatre…I thought I had told you it was personal…I guess I can't really blame Dorothy for telling you…after all…she is hardly going to keep anything from you from now on…" said Trowa more to himself than to the other man.

"I know what you told me but, Trowa…I mean it…I can help you as much as Dorothy can…And, you don't need to explain anything to me if you don't want to…" said Quatre hopeful.

Trowa almost smiled seeing his friend so eager to help. Trowa brought one of his hands to the left side of his face. It was still swollen and tonight he would have to change the side he usually wore his mask so he could conceal the nasty bruise it had already appeared. He guessed that Quatre would do no harm if he helped.

"Ok. I will gladly accept your help but…don't ask me questions…I have my reasons to find that girl…I'm just not prepared to tell anyone…yet…".

"I'm happy to hear that. Don't worry, I will only expect from you whatever you are prepared to tell me…nothing more…Anyway, good luck with your show…" said Quatre looking his usual enthusiastic self.

Trowa, closing the communication, half smiled. This guy was truly amazing. Sometimes he looked, and acted, just like a little boy but again, he was in charge of the biggest corporation in the L4 cluster and one of the largest in the whole of ESUN.

Looking at the clock, the clown decided it was too late to continue his nap and went to take a shower. He was about to step on it when someone knocked on his door.

"Trowa? Are you there?".

It was Catherine. His sister. Trowa and Catherine had not long ago, decided to take the DNA test to see if they could be family. The test showed what they already felt: they had 98.9 probability of being blood relatives. So, it became clear that Trowa was Catherine's little brother Triton. Trowa had, however, decided to keep his name and had not even bothered changing his surname either. It was, as Duo had put it once, just a name…something someone gives us…Besides, he had got used to it now so, changing it would have been hard.

"Yes. I'm here, what's up sis?" said Trowa covering himself with a towel and opening the caravan's door.

"Oh…you were going to take a shower…" commented Catherine making Trowa think that today was 'Artificial Intelligence day' and everyone had to make an extra effort to make stupid remarks.

"Yes…it doesn't matter. Come in…don't want to start the show to soon, do you?" asked Trowa seeing some of the circus girls looking at his almost naked from with more than healthy curiosity.

"No…sorry…Oh wow! What happened to your face? You have not been fighting again, have you?" asked Catherine seeing his swollen cheek.

"No…it's a long story…so…what's so urgent?" said Trowa sitting next to her in his small couch, ignoring the fact he was still wearing the towel.

"Nothing. I just wanted to tell you that…well, we are going to make the announcement tonight but, I wanted you to know first…before anyone else…" said Catherine.

"We? What we?" asked Trowa getting concerned.

"Well, Michael and I…we are getting married…" said Catherine glowing with sheer happiness.

"What? Michael? He's what, like a century older than you?" shouted Trowa jumping off the couch and having to grab the towel that hung precariously from his hips.

"Trowa! Michael is only nineteen years older than me…and love knows no age anyway…I definitely was not expecting this kind of reaction from you…it's a good thing Michael is not here…" said Catherine looking very offended.

Trowa thought of their circus manager and his re-found sister together and was almost sick at the thought.

"I'm sorry Cathy…is just that…why him?" asked Trowa sitting down and trying to keep his usual calm.

"Why not him? I love him…I've loved him for ages…is just that…I was too young…now is different…I'm old enough now….and we want to marry…Trowa, we are not asking your approval here…however we would like to know that our decision makes you happy too…" said Catherine also trying to calm down. She had a real problem with her temper…it was a good thing she could release the tension with her knives…otherwise…

"I don't know…I have to think of it…sorry, but I will need some time…" replied Trowa.

"Ok…you have six weeks. The wedding will be celebrated then…" said Catherine getting up and not looking pleased with her brother's answer.

Unfortunately, Trowa could not give any other. He was upset because he had hoped that he and his sister would be spending more time together to make up for the lost time…and now that old man was taking her away from him…

Relena could not believe her ears. What she had just been told was just too…she just had no words to describe it. She had had a normal check up done since she had been feeling a bit down lately. But, this…was…

"Are you sure doctor?" asked Relena so she could hear it again, just to help her convince herself.

"Yes…one hundred percent dear…you're about four weeks pregnant…".

END OF CHAPTER FOUR


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Relena spent the short trip from the clinic to the palace immersed in her thoughts. This time she had little doubts about telling Heero. In fact she was going to do so the minute she saw him. Besides, although he had never said it with words, Relena was more than sure that he returned her feelings, even if it was in his own particular way.

Like, for instance, the way he made love to her. Heero even managed to be passionate. Not in the hot quick way of 'I'll take you here and now' but in the way that, if he wanted to make love, he would just let her know, again, not with words but with gestures, like that night, four weeks ago, when Heero had shown Relena how wrong she was thinking he did not want to make love to her.

Relena had got used to that side of his personality. Heero could manage some long speeches in his school or in some of the seminars he attended, but when it came to things like feelings, he preferred a more direct approach. In any case, Relena was happy that their relationship had taken the final step into some kind of normality.

Not that their relationship would ever be normal for it would be impossible. Both of them had been through too much to just forget and pretend to be normal. This applied specially to Heero. It had already been a miracle that he had been able to, through therapy, feel again some of the normal, human feelings. He had just not mastered very well how to show them nor how to express them verbally. But Relena did not care, she was happy the way things were. At the end of the day, she had felt attracted to Heero because of his extraordinary personality, so she did not want him to change that much, specially now that he looked so relaxed and happy.

She brought her hand to her tummy. She could not feel it yet but, knowing that a new life was growing inside her once more, made her feel whole. A feeling that she had believed long lost. Of course, this baby could not replace in any way the one she'd lost but, like she had promised to herself, her first, lost baby, would occupy a special place in her heart forever…

"Mrs Yuy? I have Mrs Maxwell on line 3. Do you wish to take the call?" she heard her bodyguard's voice coming through the intercom.

"Sure…thank you" said Relena snapping back to reality.

Pressing the button next to the screen in her limo, saw the sweet looking face of her best friend. The signal came from the videocom of a small civilian shuttle.

"Hi! Relena, you will never guess were we are heading to…" started Hilde with a huge grin. Relena did not want to get paranoid but, Hilde's grins were looking every day more like Duo's.

"Nope, but I hope you're going to be kind enough to tell me…" replied Relena smiling back.

"We are about to land in New Port city!" almost shouted Hilde excited.

"What are you doing in Sank?" asked Relena pleased that she would have the chance to see Hilde.

"Well, do you remember the doctor from L2 you recommended?" asked Hilde.

Relena nodded.

"Ok. He has asked one of his colleagues here in Sank to examine my case so, here I am…listen, would you be free to meet me, say in, half an hour? I know you're busy but…" said Hilde hopeful.

"No…today I took the day off…I would be more than happy to see you and, if you want, I may come with you to see the doctor, well, that is if Duo doesn't mind, of course…" said Relena.

"You don't mind, do you?" Relena saw Hilde tilting her head towards the shuttle pilot, obviously Duo, Relena heard his cheery voice saying 'no problem'.

"Of course he does not mind…anyway, were would you like to meet?" added this time talking to Relena.

"I need to pop by the house one minute to leave some documents and to grab my briefcase because I need to write some notes on a new treaty but, I could pick you up from the airport in half an hour's time…" offered Relena.

"I thought you said it was your day off…" said Hilde frowning.

"I know, and it is…is just something I need to do today…" Relena tried, in vain, to justify herself.

"Whatever…you work too hard…anyway, I'll see you in half an hour…can't wait!" said Hilde excitedly.

They closed the communication. The minute they arrived, Relena asked to both the chauffer and the bodyguard to stay in the car because she would be needing the car immediately.

She greeted Paygan who, as usual had come to open the door for her, and told him her plans as she walked to her studio. There she took the folder containing all her medical documents from her safe and shoved in the papers that the doctor had given her. Glancing at her wristwatch she saw that she was already late for her appointment so, instead of putting the folder back in the safe, she just left it on her desk. They would be alright there for a few hours, she thought. Then she literally ran back to the car.

Heero parked his car near the entrance of the palace. He was tired that evening, two of his three instructors had called in sick and Heero had to handle most of the lessons by himself and, was definitely not looking forward the sponsor visit he had scheduled for the next day. In order to set up the school without anyone's help, Heero had to get some sponsors that had ensured the first capital he needed. The problem is that, even though he no longer needed them, they had signed a four year contract so they had the right to visit and to enjoy the exhibitions done by the best pilots of each promotion. Heero definitely did not enjoy that. He just liked piloting and teaching how to pilot. He had been relieved when he had been able to afford someone to handle his administrative tasks for him.

As soon as he crossed the threshold, Paygan informed him that Relena was out with Hilde. Heero felt a bit disappointed. He had been looking forward seeing her. For some reason, she seemed to be able to put things in perspective. Especially in bad days like today.

Thanking Paygan for the information, Heero headed to Relena's study. He thought that maybe, his wife would have left a note of something. She usually left a quick note if she was not going to be home.

Turning on the light Heero saw no note but, instead, saw a folder with some documents coming out of it. He went to the desk with the intention of tidying it up. Taking the file he saw one piece of paper falling from inside it. Leaving the folder back on the table bended down to pick up the sheet.

He saw immediately it was a medical document. He did not mean to read it but a word printed on the sheet attracted his attention. 'Pregnant'. He started reading the whole thing and, at the end of it he had to sit on Relena's chair.

Relena was pregnant. This document had today's date on it.

He was going to be a father.

Heero could not believe it. He decided to check for more documents to see if there were some more remarks made by the doctor. He wanted to know everything. Heero did not realise that Relena would probably get mad with him for this clear violation of her privacy, but again, for an ex-hacker like him the word privacy meant nothing.

Then, he came across something that he surely should have never seen.

It was the dossier made by Sally in Mars. The only set of documents that mentioned anything about Relena's miscarriage. They had been marked as highly confidential and they were the only existing copy. And reading them, Heero understood why.

After reading them Heero was shocked. This was a new feeling for him. He did not know how to call it, it was a very strange mixture of anger, frustration and sadness. Relena had got pregnant, naturally, seeing the dates, it had to be the result of that single night they had been together. She had lost the baby when she had been shot and, he had known nothing. He had been a father-to-be and had known nothing about it. Why? Why was it that Relena had not told him about it? He believed, no, he trusted that Relena told him everything…He trusted her. Only her. He did not trust anyone else. And now…

He was so absorbed in his thoughts that did not notice someone gasping by the studio's door.

"Heero…what are you doing here?" asked Relena.

"Excuse me, have you seen my sister?" asked Trowa to Cyndy, one of the majorettes that worked in the circus.

"Let me think…Ah, yes, I'm not sure but I overheard Patti talking about something like going to the shops with her for the last accessories for the wedding or something…I don't know for sure if they were talking about this afternoon though…" explained the sweet looking girl.

"Ah, ok…thanks…." replied Trowa turning around to head towards his caravan.

Trowa got inside his caravan incredibly angry. If this was what was going to be his sister as a married woman, then, he had had every right to get upset when she had told him about the wedding. Today they had to rehearse their new show. He had been very insistent about it in the past few days. And what had happened? Catherine had forgot about it.

He decided to wait till she got back to talk to her. This was intolerable.

Trowa was reading some book while lying on his bed when the videocom buzzed. He pressed the button next to his bed, the screen was fairly close so he did not need to get up. It was Quatre and Dorothy.

"Hi! How are you?" asked the blond man.

"Not very well…I'm having a hard time with my sister here…today she even forgot we had to…oh, forget about it…what's up?" asked Trowa not wanting to say too much about his problems with his sibling.

"Well, we have very good news…" said Dorothy smiling.

"Ah, what is it?" asked Trowa trying not to sound as eager as he was.

"We've found a girl called Midii. We could not find a picture of her anywhere but we had some good descriptions by her neighbours and it looks like it's the one we are after…" said Quatre.

Trowa sensed that there was something else that they did not want to tell him.

"Ok. Then, I'll go and see her…" said Trowa resolutely.

"Well, we will forward you her address…but, Trowa…she's not living alone…she's living with a man…" said Dorothy checking carefully for any change in the man's legendary, immutable expression.

"That does not mean anything…" said Quatre being his ultra optimistic self.

"Exactly" agreed Trowa.

"Ok, then, do you want us to help you with anything else?" offered Dorothy.

"No, thank you, you've done enough…" said Trowa.

Closing the communication, Trowa decided to pack up his essentials. His fax started beeping and he saw on the screen the address that Quatre and Dorothy had promised to send. He did a print out and taking it, grabbed his small rucksack.

He opened the door to leave to find Catherine about to knock on his door.

"Where are you going?" asked the red head seeing him with the small rucksack.

"I've got some business to take care of…" said Trowa not hiding how angry he was.

"I'm sorry baby…I know I have screwed up…I totally forgot our appointment…I just…" began to say Cathy.

"Don't worry…now you'll have all the time in the world…I won't be here to distract you for at least a few days…tell your fiancé I will be back, whenever I'm back…" said Trowa pushing her out of the way.

"Trowa…but…" said Catherine upset.

But Trowa had already left. Leaving a teary Catherine wondering if he would be back in time to give her away to her husband-to-be, now, this wedding did not seem such a good idea to her after all...

END OF CHAPTER FIVE


	6. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Trowa thought of the irony. Midii had been living in the L3 cluster all this time. When Quatre had asked him the reason why he was so desperately looking for Midii, Trowa had replied that he was not sure. That was not true at all. Trowa knew perfectly why he was looking for her.

Ever since they met almost ten years ago, Trowa had been thinking of her. Especially now that Trowa had a home, he kept thinking if Midii had a home too…if she was happy now that peace had finally reached all of them. And, he wanted to know if he still felt what he felt whenever she was around.

Then his thoughts diverted to his sister. What on earth was she thinking? He definitely did not want to see her married to that man. He was ancient! Trowa knew that Cathy was right, that love knew no age and all that stuff. But, come on…she was gorgeous, even him, her brother, had noticed that…She could have any man she wanted…why that archaeological relic? Besides, he had the conviction that Michael was doing all he could to drive her away from him.

Trowa had been worried about that possessive feeling he had towards his sister. At first he kept scolding himself but, after a careful thought, he realised that it was right. His sister deserved better and, Trowa had a pretty strong believe that, if Michael loved her as much as she insisted he did, then why on earth would he behave in such strange manner whenever Trowa was around? It looked as though as he was defending his territory…That was not good…As soon as he went back he needed to talk to Cathy…

The bus where he was travelling soon reached its destination. He got off and found himself in a pretty run down area of the colony. It was probably the oldest part of it.

Looking at the address he had, he stopped one old lady, and asked if she could give him some directions.

The old lady replied politely that yes, and gave him precise instructions.

Trowa had all his senses on full alert. He did not trust that area of the colony too much. He followed the lady's directions and found himself in front of a very old, small and battered house.

This could not possibly be the house where Midii lived. He remembered her saying something about being poor and all but, now things were much better for everyone…in fact, most of this houses where empty, and the colony's committee wanted to redo the entire area with new housing and parks.

He went to knock on the door when he heard someone behind him.

"I would not bother…they're not home…".

He turned around to face a girl. She was dressed in a very hippy way, her dark red, wavy hair full of flowers and her face full of freckles.

"And, you would be?" asked Trowa.

"I'm Sunflower…I'm a member of the commune down the road…the girl that lives here is a friend of mine…" replied the curious looking girl.

"Ah…you know Midii then…" said Trowa hopeful.

"Sure I do…I'm a great fan of hers…" replied the girl puzzling Trowa.

"Fan?" asked Trowa confused.

"Well, yes…she's a singer, and a very good one….it's a pity that Bill does not allow her to record anything…" explained the girl named Sunflower.

"Is she singing now?" asked Trowa hoping that the hippy girl would be willing to help him.

"Sure she is…I can take you to the bar where she's singing tonight. It will be closed but we can sneak in…" said the girl winking one of her brown eyes and smiling.

"Thanks…that would be great…" replied Trowa.

The two walked for about twenty minutes.

They stopped in front of a club. It was closed indeed but it was not difficult to see that the back door was open.

Following the girl, Trowa entered the place and, to his surprise, it actually looked half decent. There were some people cleaning and a girl preparing herself to rehearse. She was giving her back to him so he could only see her long blond hair tied in a braid. She was a lot thinner that he remembered, or maybe is because she had grown a lot…maybe he was expecting her to be more of a woman now…

Sunflower told him to stay there. She told him that she was allowed to get in and out of that place whenever she pleased. Did not tell him why. Then Sunflower went to speak to the girl. Then both girls turned around and Trowa finally caught full sight of her.

It had not been his imagination. She looked awfully thin. And, without any doubt, this girl was Midii Une.

He saw her gasping. Well at least she had recognised him. She approached him while Sunflower stayed on the stage talking to one of the guys standing there.

"Hi no-name, what are you doing here?" said the minute she had reached him looking around herself, appearing almost scared...

"My name now is Trowa Barton. I've been looking for you…I wanted to talk to you…" started saying Trowa.

Then, someone came from behind the stage. It was a pretty big man, he was shouting.

"MIDII, YOU SHOULD HAVE STARTED THE REHEARSAL TEN MINUTES AGO…WHAT ARE YOU DOING???".

"Oh gosh…it's Bill…I better go…" said Midii, confirming Trowa's suspicion… she was scared…of that Bill guy.

"I'm sorry mate, I was just talking to her…" said Trowa talking to the man that, with big steps was approaching them.

"And who the fuck are you?" asked the man rudely.

"I'm a…well, I'm an old acquaintance of Midii…" replied Trowa looking at Midii.

"Well, I am her husband so bugger off…" said the guy called Bill grabbing Midii's arm and half dragging her to the stage.

Midii looked back at Trowa briefly. Trowa felt terribly distressed about what he saw in her eyes. Trowa looked around to find Sunflower but she was nowhere to be see. He then decided to leave.

Married. Midii was married. How strage…Quatre's database did not mention any of that…but, what was more strange is the look that Midii had given him. If he got a bit paranoid he would even think she was pleading…pleading for what? What was going on?

He would discover it. Sooner or later. Right now, he would call Quatre and ask for his advice.

It had happened too quickly to even realise it. Relena had come in her studio and had found Heero reading her medical documents.

"What are you doing here?" asked Relena.

Heero did not reply to this question. He just limited himself to give her one of his glares.

Relena looked at the folder that Heero still held in his hands. Relena understood that Heero had read everything and he probably knew everything now.

"How could you?" Heero said looking at her accusingly.

Relena was about to say something when he said:

"I need time to think…".

He then left the folder on her desk and, getting up from the chair, just headed to the door, pushed Relena out of the way and ran down the stairs to the front door.

Relena stood there and, hearing the front door being shut, shouted:

"HEERO!!!".

Duo and Hilde stood there in the living room not understanding what was going on. They had been invited by Relena for dinner and they were supposed to stay in the palace tonight. Duo had tried to say hi to Heero as he was heading to the door but had not made it on time. Then they saw Relena coming down and Hilde went to her.

"Relena, what is going on?" asked the German girl worried.

"I….oh my gosh…I've screwed up…oh…Hilde…I've really screwed up everything now…" said Relena starting to cry.

Hilde hugged her friend. Duo stood there not knowing what to do. Paygan was just worried because no one told him what happened.

Duo, trying to do something useful, asked Paygan to bring them some tea, not that they needed it but this way, Paygan would feel useful too. Hilde brought Relena to one of the sofas in the living room.

"Now, sweetie…what's happened just there?" asked Hilde warning Duo with a look not to say anything.

"I…don't know if I should tell you…" said a sobbing Relena looking at Hilde.

"Baby, whatever it is, if you don't tell me, I won't be able to help you…" said Hilde trying to encourage the blond girl to talk to her.

"Well…the thing is…oh…I'm pregnant" finished Relena with a very small voice still looking at Hilde.

"Ah…wow…that's fabulous…I mean…it is, isn't it?" said Duo getting a glare from Hilde.

"Honey…why didn't you want to tell me? I am so happy for you…" said Hilde.

"I just did not know how you would…you know…" said Relena looking at Hilde intently.

"Baby, this has nothing to do with my problem…it has everything to do with you…I'll be thrilled to have you having a baby…We'll just spoil him or her silly…" said Hilde smiling.

"I take Heero has some problems with this…" said Duo reminding Hilde of what the real problem was.

"What happened, isn't he happy? Baby, sometimes men can be a bit…you know…they get scared by these things…he just needs time to adjust…" Hilde explained.

"No. This is not one of those cases Hilde. The thing is…well…it's not the first time I'm pregnant…No one, but Sally, Lucrezia and my brother knew about it but, two years ago, Heero and I…well, you know…once…and I got pregnant…then all that mess happened and I got kidnapped and shot…and…I lost my baby…I just never had the chance to tell Heero…then he was so sick and he needed all that medical help…he did not need the extra stress…I chose not to tell him but…now, he's found out…and I think he thinks I've kind of lied to him or something…" said Relena starting to cry again remembering all the sorrow from the past.

"Wow…wait a minute…so, you were pregnant when you got shot in Mars. Then you lost the baby and Heero never knew about it…now…somehow he's found out about it…does he know you are pregnant again?" asked Duo astonished by the blond girl's revelations.

"Probably…I found out just today…the medical report was with the others…" said Relena.

"Oh my…Relena…I'm so sorry…it must have been terrible…oh, but you need to talk to him…you had valid reasons to behave like you did…You just need to talk to him to make him see your point of view…I'm sure he'll understand…" said Hilde trying to be positive.

"I don't know…the way he was looking at me…it scared me so much…it was so…cold…so full of hate…" said Relena with her voice cracking because of the knot she had in her throat.

"Nonsense…let's go…we'll drive all over the place till we find him…and then you'll talk to him…or my name is not Duo Maxwell…" said Duo resolutely.

"Honey, your real name is not Duo Maxwell, you don't really know what your real name is…" his wife reminded him jokingly.

"Be quiet…baby, did you know that if you have nothing nice to say is better not saying anything at all?" reprimanded Duo pretending to be offended.

Hearing this exchange, and even though all the problems she had, Relena could not help but smile, Duo and Hilde were the best couple she had ever seen...

END OF CHAPTER SIX


	7. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

Heero reached the airfield he used for the practices. He went to one of the school's smaller shuttles, opened the door and sat in the control cabin. He just sat there, in the dark, he did not know why but he felt much better when there was no light and no noises to distract him.

Heero definitely needed no distractions right now. He had to think about too much. Was he happy with his life? Was he doing what his emotions were telling him to do? And, specially, now that he was going to become a father, how did he feel about that…He was, again, as confused as during the therapy. He felt too much and he did not like it. He much preferred having a clear head. Feelings just clouded your mind and prevented you from thinking straight.

The problem was that, in his situation, Heero did not have a choice. He had to sort out his feelings if he wanted to see clearly which path he was meant to follow.

Relena was pregnant. That was a fact. Heero liked facts for they left little room for doubts. She had also lied to him, no, not lied, she had hidden the truth from him. Why? Thinking carefully, he remembered that his attitude towards Relena, just before the whole Mars incident, had not been the best but, as he also remembered, he needed time. The same way that he needed time to think now.

His life had not been the best on ESUN. Not that he wanted to commiserate himself but, not knowing who your parents were, basically not having a background at all, being raised by an assassin and being trained since childhood to be the perfect soldier was not the best upbringing a boy could get. Looking at himself now though, he believed that he had done really well, he had his own, successful business and was married to a girl that was the closest thing he had had as a family, not counting Odin, of course.

Relena. What did she mean to him? Everything he guessed. She had given him hope. The hope for a better, safer future. The hope to make him believe that he could also be a human being. The thing he liked the most about her was the fact that she did not expect him to be perfect. She was impressed by something else that did not involve his strength or his skills as a soldier. She was simply impressed by the efforts he made to be just normal. He also liked the fact that, unlike everyone else, she was never afraid of him. Not openly anyway. He found that refreshing.

He had considered her some kind of angel that had come to save him. And, to be perfectly honest, the fact that she was also really good looking, also helped. He had felt this physical attraction toward her for a long time now. And, after having made love to her he understood that, unlike what he had thought before, it wasn't something that would pass with time. They had a kind of connection that he didn't have with anyone else. To think he had wanted to kill her made him want to hurt himself pretty seriously.

Heero tortured himself thinking that, if he had known that Relena was pregnant the first time, he would have done something about it and, she would have never ever put herself in such big danger. Heero was furious with her because of that. How could she had been so reckless? Cooperating in such dangerous mission while expecting a child, their child. Anything could have happened. Wait. Everything happened. She lost their baby. A baby Heero would never see. Heero was furious because in the space of a few hours he had to go through what she had had months to cope with. The joy of knowing about the baby. The worry about it. The sorrow of the loss. And the impotence and the anger for not having been able to do anything to prevent it.

For Heero, that overload of feelings was too much. He felt exhausted. Heero looked around himself and found himself almost laughing hysterically when he realised what he was looking for. There were no self destruction buttons in civilian shuttles…

Quatre could not stop thinking about what Trowa would do. His friend, when put under stress, was pretty much unpredictable. The Arabian man had been astonished when Trowa had told him about the girl.

He still remembered the conversation. Trowa had sounded very worried about the girl. Quatre was under the impression that, somehow Trowa felt guilty for the girl's situation. Trowa had not told him so directly but, Quatre had sensed that something was missing in the picture.

"Quatre? Hey Quatre are you listening to me?".

"Ah…sorry Dorothy…were you saying?" said Quatre startled remembering suddenly that he was speaking to his girlfriend through the videocom.

"Quatre…are you alright? It looks like you are millions of miles away from us…" commented Dorothy.

"No…well, yes…I was thinking about Trowa…" admitted Quatre with a sad voice.

"Ah…brilliant, here is me trying to plan our wedding and…you are thinking about a guy…" said Dorothy pretending to be offended.

"Ah…no…sweetie…is not like…" started saying Quatre only to be interrupted by Dorothy's laughter.

"Silly…I was kidding…in any case, if you are worried about Trowa, why don't you go L3 and check things out there? Maybe he needs a hand but does not want to ask for it…" said Dorothy trying to help.

"It's not that…in fact he has called me to ask for my advice but…I just told him to let go…the girl is married and, even if she's not, she's still living with that guy…I told him that if he really wants to do something, it has to be from far away…without a direct interference…I have already send him a computer with my database so he can do the research himself…for some reason, I think we should not get involved…this looks like a very private matter to me…better stay out of it…" explained Quatre.

"Guess you're right…in any case, Trowa knows that if he needs anything he can ask for help anytime…I hope he's alright…he's a nice guy…" said Dorothy.

"Ah, really…is that so?" said Quatre getting a bit jealous.

"Oh! Quatre…really, you're just a bit too paranoid…You should be a bit more confident with yourself…you're surprisingly insecure for someone as rich as you…All rich people I know are so arrogant and have egos the size of a whole colony…" commented Dorothy with a smirk.

"Sorry…I have to control that side of myself…I really don't like too much…is just that, when it comes to you…" defended himself.

"No…I actually like to see you're not Mr Perfect…but, do try to have a much higher degree of self esteem that's all…Now, pink or blue?" asked Dorothy.

"Pink or what?" asked Quatre confused.

"Pink or blue, the flowers, do you want them pink or blue? I need to know that so I can order the dresses for the bridesmaids…" replied Dorothy clearly closing the Trowa topic and starting with the wedding.

Ever since Quatre had proposed the same night he had declared his feelings for Dorothy, the girl had switched to full Wedding Planner mood and it was scary to see how much effort she put into it. Quatre was pleased though so he did not complained too much.

They just spent the rest of their conversation arranging details for what it would be one of the biggest social events of the year. After all, high society had been utterly disappointed of how low key Minister Peacecraft's 200 guests only wedding had been. This was the marriage of the head of the Winner empire and the only survivor of the Catalonia noble family. It had to be huge.

They spent the first ten minutes of the car ride in complete silence. Then Duo, unable to stay quiet for so long, asked Relena:

"How do you feel?".

"What? Well…not very well now…I'm nervous…" replied Relena confused by Duo's question.

"I think he means how does it feel to be pregnant…" explained Hilde joining the conversation.

"Ah…well, it's too soon to feel anything but…I will be feeling a bit sick later on and…after a while, when the baby will be a bit bigger, then I will feel it inside me. It's a pretty strange feeling, you know, knowing that something is growing inside you but…with time you learn to feel joy and you form a bond with the baby that, even if you lose it, like it happened to me, you just don't lose that bond. It will stay with you forever. I cannot explain it better with just words…I'm sorry…" Relena said looking at Hilde.

"I said it before, don't worry about me…I'm so happy to hear you're pregnant…Relena, how far were you when…I mean…" asked Hilde.

"Just passed the 13th week…It was no longer an embryo…biologically, it already was a human being…" said Relena feeling the old knot forming in her throat. She needed to talk about something else or else she would start crying again "In any case, I need to find Heero…he's got every reason to be mad with me…".

"How would you feel Duo? I mean you're a guy…" asked Hilde to her husband.

"I don't know…in any case, I cannot imagine how Heero's taken it. He's a really…I mean…" started Duo.

"Strange guy?" offered Relena.

"Well…Yes…I did not want to offend you…sorry…" apologised Duo.

"Don't worry, I know we are not Mr and Mrs Normality…" said Relena with a sad smile.

"Anyway, where do you think he's headed?" asked Duo.

"If I know him as much as I think I do…the only place he can be at is the school…, I've already asked the chauffer to take us there…" said Relena.

As soon as they arrived to the school, Relena asked Duo and Hilde to stay in the car. Although they had been really good friends to her, she needed to do this alone. Even her bodyguard had to stay behind. She walked inside the school glad that Heero had insisted and had given her a key. Looking around she couldn't see nor hear any signs of someone being there. She opened the door that led to the shuttle's hangars. Relena tried to adjust her eyes to the darkness of the place. She walked quickly through the shuttles parked outside the hangar feeling a bit uneasy. She should not be alone in a strange place in the dark. It could be dangerous, she knew it, but she ignored it.

"What are you doing here? Where's your bodyguard?" asked a very familiar monotone behind her back.

"I was looking for you" replied Relena turning around to face Heero. He was standing by one of the shuttle's door. He had probably seen her looking around for she had just passed in front of that shuttle.

"And your bodyguard? Do you ever worry about your safety? You should know better than wandering around unescorted in a dark open space…" said Heero reprimanding her.

"I'm sorry. Heero…I…" started saying Relena.

"I'm sorry too…" said Heero with the saddest tone she had ever heard.

"Why?" asked Relena.

"Because I did not protect you…I broke my promise…I promised that I would protect you and, my inability to understand my feelings for you distracted me from my chief mission. I had to protect you and I didn't so I'm partially responsible for the loss of our baby. I'm angry with you for not telling me about it but, I think I understand why you didn't…It's ironic that you didn't tell me thinking it would distract me from the mission but yet again you distracted me anyway and that made me fail my other mission, my most important mission…" said Heero stepping out of the shuttle and walking towards her stopping only a couple of steps away.

"Heero…I'm so sorry…I wanted to tell you but…I was afraid of what you would say…I thought you did not love me…I thought that…I just didn't want you to feel any duty towards the baby…I…I wanted you to marry me because of me…because you felt something for me…not for the baby's sake…now, I feel the same again…I don't want you to stay with me because you feel you have to…" said Relena.

"I don't think that is an option. I want to be with you. And…I promise that, this time, I will take care of you properly. There is no way I will fail the same mission twice. I promise…" said Heero walking towards Relena and, taking her in his arms, added "you're the most important thing I have in my life…I don't want to lose you…I don't want to lose any of you two…".

Relena was incredibly happy. This was the closest thing Heero had said to her to the three words she wanted to hear the most.

Another couple, from not too far away, observed the scene. Smiling at each other, decided to copy the other pair and hugged each other. Duo and Hilde did not know that destiny, being its usual cruel self, had not finished with Relena and Heero, a huge black cloud was creeping over their relationship willing to destroy their newborn happiness…

END OF CHAPTER SEVEN


	8. Chapter Eight

A/N: A **big** thank you to all reviewers! You're just too good to be true! I hope I will be able to keep up with your expectations… I'm trying my best to finish it before Christmas, so, here is the next chapter for you…

Chapter Eight

Finding the information was not difficult for someone like him. In fact it had taken just a few minutes with the computer that Quatre had sent to him. Midii was not married. She had never been married. Then why had that guy lied to him? And, why had Midii not told the truth?

What concerned him the most about all of it was the way Midii had looked at him. The more he thought about it the more convinced he was. She was definitely asking for help.

Trowa could not follow Quatre's advice. He had to do something a bit more actively. He was not the one to stay with his arms folded watching things happen. That's why he was now driving this rented car towards Midii's house.

As soon as he arrived there, he parked the car and, staying inside, started surveying the house to see any signs of activity. There seemed to be no one in the house.

Getting off the car he walked through the very unkempt garden toward the house's main door. He knocked on it twice. He was about to knock again when he heard the door being unlocked.

Thankfully it was Midii. She did not fully open the door because she had left the safety chain on it. It was dark inside the house so he could not see her very clearly.

"No name? What are you doing here…" asked with a very feeble voice almost whispering.

"I told you to call me Trowa, everyone calls me that now…" said Trowa not liking to be called no name anymore.

"Sorry, Trowa…how can I help you then?" asked Midii still whispering. She sounded a bit scared like if she wanted to get rid of him as quickly as possible.

"I've come to speak to you, last time your…well…that man did not allow us to speak properly…" started Trowa stopping to see if she said something.

"What do you want to talk about?" said Midii looking over her shoulder every now and then.

"I wanted to ask you why did he say he was your husband when you are not married…" asked Trowa directly.

She did not reply. She just limited herself to lower her eyes as if she was checking something on the floor.

"Midii…why did he say that…oh…Can I just come in?" asked Trowa.

"No…it's not a good moment now…I'm sorry…Trowa, really…stay out of it…I mean it…Good bye…" said closing the door. As she was doing so, a bit of the outside light allowed him to see a pretty nasty bruised eye on the girl's face. Trowa almost felt sick.

"Midii!" shouted Trowa.

"Open this door at once!" shouted again this time banging the door with his fists.

"Trowa? Is that you?" asked a familiar female voice. It was that girl called Sunflower. Trowa turned around to face her. Sunflower made a gesture to indicate she wanted to talk to him.

Trowa followed the girl and, after they were far enough from the house so they would not be heard, Sunflower asked:

"Trowa, how much of a friend are you to Midii?".

"Well…we are childhood friends…" Trowa replied not entirely lying.

"Then, if Midii needed help, you would help her, wouldn't you?" asked the girl.

"Yes. Of course…Midii is in trouble, isn't she?" asked Trowa very concerned.

"I think she is. The other day, when I lost sight of you, I wanted to salute you before I left and I went to Midii's room thinking you'd be there. I heard someone shouting and, through the key hole I saw Bill shouting at Midii and at some point I saw Bill hitting Midii very hard. She fell on the floor and started crying there begging him to stop it. I think he's done that before because I've seen that, sometimes, Midii wears sunglasses even when she's indoors…Please Trowa, would you help her?" asked Sunflower looking hopeful at Trowa.

"You bet I will. That bastard won't get away with it…just wait. I will come up with a plan…" said Trowa. His instincts saying that it would be much better to wait than doing something stupid that would probably end up with the bastard swimming in his own blood and Trowa in jail.

After reassuring Sunflower, Trowa got in his car and drove to the hotel room he was staying. Since he did not want to go back to the circus, he had decided to stay in a hotel for the time being.

From there, he started thinking. First thing was calling Quatre. Trowa had learned to trust and to confide his problems to the blond Arabian.

"Trowa…what a surprise…" said Quatre a bit sarcastically.

"Quatre? Having a bad day, huh?" commented Trowa.

"Yep…had three meetings in a row that made me waste ages because they did not conclude anything, I'm having problems with the union trade in one of my factories and on the top of that, I have a fiancée that cannot think nor talk about anything else but our wedding…not pretty, huh?…" said Quatre sighing heavily.

"Ok. Then, let's add to your problems an annoying friend with a huge problem…" said Trowa trying to be funny.

"Hey man, careful there or you'll end up being a comedian rather than a sad clown…" said Quatre smiling.

"Well…Quatre, this is the problem: Midii is being beaten up by that bastard she's living with. I have been good and I did not go into the house to beat the hell out of him so, please, do tell me what you think it's best…" explained Trowa quickly.

"What? Are you sure? I mean…how do you know?" asked Quatre.

"I know because I have seen a huge bruise on her face and, also, because a girl that lives nearby has actually seen the bastard beating Midii up with her own eyes…" replied Trowa.

"Ok. Then…let me think…" said Quatre staying quiet for a few seconds.

"Alright…so…You told me she's a singer now. Do you know where she'll be singing next?" asked Quatre.

"Sure…the same bar where I went to meet her…why?" replied Trowa not fully understanding the point.

"Ok…then, leave it to me…I will call you in about five minutes…" said Quatre closing the conversation.

Relena was in her office. It had been a few days since she and Heero had sorted things out and now Relena had decided to tell Lucrezia all about the pregnancy and what had happened in the school.

"What!? Wow, those are fantastic news! I'm so happy for you two…" shouted Lucrezia as soon as Relena had finished explaining it all to her sister in law.

"I know…but, please stop shouting! I'll hear you all the way from Mars!" said Relena laughing.

"Sorry! I'm just very happy about it…How's Heero behaving now? I mean…now that he's going to be a daddy…that's surely something interesting to see…" said Lucrezia wickedly.

"Oh! Lucrezia, really…" exclaimed Relena.

"I was kidding! Is just that…" started Lucrezia.

"I know what you're thinking…but, I think that Heero will be a really good father…he was a bit freaked out at first but, now that the idea is sinking in him, you should see him…he's even doing some research in good parenting!" explained Relena.

"Oh my gosh! That's funny! He's taking it seriously then…" commented Lucrezia.

"Oh, yes…he's set himself like if it were some kind of mission…and you know how much Heero likes being a perfectionist…I'll just have to get him to relax…" said Relena smiling.

The two women talked some more about the shopping they would have to do for the baby and, after a promise from Lucrezia to get Milliardo to call Relena as soon as he was back from one of the regular inspection to the outside of the base, the closed the communication.

For the first time in a very long while, Relena was happy and relaxed. Heero, good to his word, was doing all he could to take care of her. He kept telling her not to overdo things and to take better care of herself.

Thankfully for Relena she was feeling fine. She did not have the morning sickness she had suffered of during her first pregnancy. In any case, Heero was right and she had to take things easy.

This was the reason of her call to Lady Une. The older woman's face was shown on the videocom's screen looking a bit surprised.

"Relena…is something the matter?" asked Une worried.

"No…I just wanted to inform you that I am going to ask my department to reduce my working schedule…" replied Relena.

"Ah…is there any specific reason or…" enquired Une even more surprised.

"Well, yes…I am pregnant and I will have to slow down…" replied Relena. The blond girl would have laughed seeing the startled reaction from Lady Une.

"Lady Une? Are you alright?" asked Relena not seeing any intention from the woman to say anything.

"I'm…I'm speechless…wow…that is…oh, well…it's normal, you are a married woman after all…is just that…ah! Congratulations!" stuttered Une not really finding anything appropriate to say.

"Thank you. In any case, I wanted to let you know so you can take all the appropriate measures…" said Relena.

"Yes. I will…there will be some security adjustments to be made so, whenever you can, please do forward me the new schedule…" asked Une having partially recovered from the shock.

" I will get my secretary to do it as soon as possible. Thank you for everything in advance…" said Relena.

After some more discussions regarding the extra security needed, the two women saluted each other and closed the conversation.

Meanwhile, in a hotel room in L3, Quatre, Trowa and Wufei, were checking for the umpteenth time the action plan.

"Ok guys, do we have everything we need?" said Quatre.

"I think so Quatre" replied Wufei.

"Good, then let's go…" said Trowa impatiently.

END OF CHAPTER EIGHT


	9. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

"What's the matter Relena? Aren't you feeling well?" asked Heero seeing his wife coming in their living room with a sad expression.

"No, I'm alright…is just that I've just spoken to Hilde…they have had the results from the tests and the doctor said that, in order for her to follow the treatment they would have to live here on Earth, apparently the chances of succeeding are higher here on Earth than on the colonies…" explained Relena sitting down next to her husband.

"So?" asked Heero.

"Well, it would be a bit of a problem because they have their business in L2…they've worked so hard to make it successful…" replied Relena trying to make him understand what the problem was.

"I cannot see that being an issue…They're home now, right?" asked Heero.

"Yes, they had to go back home yesterday because of the scrap yard…" replied Relena.

"Ok, then, I'll talk to Duo" said Heero getting up and heading to the videocom.

"Heero? What…" started saying Relena, only to stop curious to see what her husband had in mind.

She saw Heero sitting in front of the videocom and dialling up Duo and Hilde's number.

Duo's face appeared on the screen.

"Hey Heero! What have I done to deserve the honour?" asked Duo happy to see his friend on the other side of the line.

"Relena has told me about your problem…" started Heero.

"Ah…man…It's crap, isn't it? We really cannot afford moving to Earth now…besides, our business…" started saying Duo dropping his trademark smile.

"Like I said to Relena, I can't see what the problem is…you need to move to Earth to do the treatment…and, I happen to need someone to work with me…" said Heero shocking Duo and Relena at the same time.

"Heero? Are you asking ME to work with YOU?" asked Duo. The braided man obviously thought it was some kind of joke.

"Yes. As a matter of fact, I am…I already have some instructors working FOR me, but I would need someone to work WITH me…" explained Heero.

"Wow…I don't know what to say…what about accommodation?" asked Duo.

"I'm sure we can find something suitable for you two to live in…if not, if the worse comes to the worse, there are some unused appartments in this palace, I'm sure Relena can let you use one of them…some of them are completely detached from the palace so your independence is guaranteed" explained Heero.

"As usual you've thought of everything…" said Duo admiringly.

"Hn" was Heero's reply.

"Well…I guess we will not have a much better opportunity so I guess…I guess you've got yourself a new partner…" said Duo.

"Good…when can you move here then?" asked Heero sounding like if he had not even doubted for a second about Duo accepting his proposal.

"Well, we will need to sell the scrap yard and then we have the house here…we will need to sell that as well…" said Duo.

"You don't need to sell anything…why don't you rent it out? This way you'll keep your property, in case you want to have a second base…" proposed Heero.

"Well…yes, why not? I guess it's better…in case we ever want to come back to the colony…" said Duo.

"Ok then, it's decided…give us a call as soon as you've finished organising things…" said Heero.

"Sure…man…I mean…thank you…" stuttered Duo getting a bit emotional.

"I will expect you to work hard so don't thank me…Now, I'll speak to you soon. Over" saying so, Heero pressed the button to close the communication not even letting Duo reply.

Relena was very impressed. Heero was truly recovered. He was now even better than when she had met him. The old Heero would have not given a damn about someone being in trouble. She definitely liked this new Heero better.

Quatre got in the bar where Midii was supposed to be singing that night. Wufei was waiting in the car ready to dash off in case things got out of hand. Trowa was waiting in a small alley next to the back entrance of the bar.

They were all connected to each other by radio so, if anything went wrong they could tell one another immediately. They were very lucky to count with Wufei's help. Quatre had not thought of it twice and had asked him to help them as soon as he had learned that Wufei was in L3 attending the tests for new recruits for the preventers. He was one of the members of the jury that passed or failed the candidates. It had taken a while to convince him but, Quatre could be very persuasive…and Sally seemed to have worked some kind of miracle with Wufei. He did seem a lot more sociable since he started living with the doctor.

Quatre located the girl immediately. She was already on stage performing a catchy song. Modern music…Quatre was not a big fan of that kind of music but, for the sake of the mission pretended to be enjoying it.

"Hey man…she's a beauty, isn't she?" a brute placed next to Quatre asked. Quatre turned around and looking at the man replied:

"Yes, the lady is very good looking…Just as some friend has told me…".

"Who are you? I think I've seen you before…" asked the man.

"I'm Quatre Raberba Winner…" replied Quatre politely.

"Winner? From the Winner empire?" asked the man shocked, Quatre could almost see the greed appearing on the man's eyes.

"Yes. The same one. And who do I have to pleasure to be talking with?" asked Quatre using his best manners. He didn't need the answer for he had guessed who this guy was.

"I'm Bill Mitchell. I'm Midii's husband…I'll be happy to introduce her to you after the show…" said the man confirming Quatre's suspicion.

"I'll be delighted. If I may add…you're a lucky man…" said Quatre playing the part very convincingly.

Thankfully they did not have to wait for too long since Midii was about to finish her last song. As soon as she stepped down the stage, Bill had already led Quatre to meet her.

"Midii…I'd like you to meet Mr Winner…" said Bill taking Midii quite roughly by one of her arms and placing her in front of Quatre. The blond man noticed the gesture and did his best to hide the negative feelings he was starting to feel towards the bastard. Quatre had very strong ideas when it came to the way a gentleman was supposed to treat a lady.

"It's a pleasure to meet you…" said Quatre shaking her hand. She got surprised by the tiny piece of paper that Quatre had given her during the handshake. Quatre gave her an almost unnoticeable sign not to give him away. This was the most delicate part of the game. He hoped she did not misunderstand the situation and hoped she would not give him away.

"The pleasure is mine…" replied Midii. She seemed to have understood the message.

"Mr Winner is going to join us for a drink so go and get changed…" Bill said to Midii in what was more an other than a request.

"Sure…I'll join you as soon as I can" replied Midii.

As soon as she got in her changing room she unfolded the piece of paper. Like she had guessed, there was a message in it:

'Please meet me outside the back door. I'm in the alley. I need to talk to you…Trowa Barton'.

Trowa Barton. Again. He was being very insistent and she was curious to know why. From the changing rooms getting to the back door was relatively easy. The problem was that she did not know whether Bill would be coming to get her like he sometimes did. She really wanted to see Trowa but she was also very scared of the possibility of getting caught by Bill. He had already made her pay for her 'misconduct' in numerous occasions.

Realising this might have been the chance she had waiting for, she decided to take the risk. She ran to the back door and opening it, found Trowa standing in front of it.

"Trowa…I can't stay long…what's the matter? Didn't I tell you to stay away?" said Midii looking around as if she was expecting Bill to show up at any time.

"I needed to talk to you. I know what you're being through. I know that Bill is beating you up and I want to help you. I feel responsible for it…ten years ago you offered me your friendship and I refused it. I'm sorry for it and I would like to issue the same offer to you now. Will you please accept my help and my friendship?" asked Trowa.

"I wish I could but, Bill will kill me if he finds out…he's…very jealous…" replied Midii.

"Are you in love with him?" asked Trowa directly.

"I used to think so…I don't anymore…but, I can't leave him…he'll kill me…" insisted Midii.

"No he won't…if you want to, we can leave right here right now…" said Trowa.

"I don't know…" replied Midii.

"You don't need to be afraid. I'll protect you, I also have some friends here that will help us…you'll be safe…but you have to take the decision now…" said Trowa.

"I have to go back in, Bill wants us to have a drink with someone called Mr Winner, he gave me your note. Is he one of your friends?" asked Midii.

"Yes, he is…now, what do you want to do?" asked Trowa hoping he had convinced the girl.

"Ok…I'll come with you…" accepted Midii.

"Perfect then, follow me…" said Trowa.

Then, through his earpiece, Trowa heard Quatre's voice:

"Trowa, Bill has gone to fetch Midii…is she with you?".

"Yes, she is…" replied Trowa.

"Ok, then take her to the car now…" ordered Quatre.

Just as Trowa had heard this, Bill saw the back door open. He headed immediately outside. He made it just in time to see Trowa and Midii running. He ran after them.

Unfortunately Trowa couldn't run as fast as he could because Midii was obviously in some kind of pain. He noticed that she was limping. She had probably twisted an ankle or…that bastard had hurt her more than only her face. He felt his blood heat up with anger.

Finally Bill caught up with them. He grabbed Midii and was about to hit her when Trowa stopped him with a punch that made him drop on the ground. Quatre and Wufei arrived in that precise moment. Bill, getting up, was about to return the punch to Trowa when Wufei, producing his preventer's ID card said:

"Sir, I wouldn't do that if I were you…You're already in enough trouble as it is…".

"What the fuck are you talking about? Do you want me to beat the hell out of you as soon as I finish with this bastard here?" asked Bill provokingly. He was about to grab Trowa when Wufei said:

"Oh, I'd really like that…so, in addition with the accuse of battering this lady here, you would also be accused of attacking a public officer…that would be just great…now, make it easy on yourself and turn around…I declare you under arrest…".

Then Wufei pulled a pair of handcuffs out and started to tell him his rights.

Trowa, making a huge effort not to kill the bastard, passed an arm around Midii's shoulder and started walking her to the car. Then, Bill, in a desperate attempt, tried to pull off Wufei's grasp. Not succeeding, Bill turned around and tried to hit Wufei. From all the ideas he may have had, that was probably the worst one. Wufei, with a swift move, not only avoided the punch but also grabbed Bill and crashed him against the ground, face down.

"Ok, now you are in big trouble…he did warn you…" said Quatre seeing a not very happy Wufei not only handcuffing him but also ensuring that he would not get up by pressing his boot on his upper back, "I will testify everything I've seen before a jury…" added the Arabian man.

"Ok, Trowa, take the girl to the Hotel. I'll ask to the local patrol to come and pick this scumbag up…" said Wufei pulling out his preventer's radio.

"What about Quatre?" asked Trowa.

"Don't worry about me, I'll call my chauffeur. He'll pick me and Wufei up…" replied the blond man, Trowa nodded.

"What is going to happen to him?" asked Midii as soon as she was safe in the car.

"I'm not sure but, in any case, you're safe now…I guarantee you that…" replied Trowa starting the car's engine.

END OF CHAPTER NINE


	10. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Sally finally arrived home. Thankfully, Wufei would be home the day after. They had started living together just over a year ago and, to be honest, she just did not like being on her own anymore. It was fine for a few hours but, as soon as the night came and she had to go to bed, she was reminded that she was on her own and it was very sad and almost scary. She was also worried because Wufei had told her about the favour he was doing to Quatre and Trowa. It was a stupid thing worrying so much about him, after all he was an ex-Gundam pilot…in any case, she was concerned that something might have happened and she would not be there…

She was about to tell herself off for being so silly when the videocom buzzed. She virtually dived to it and pressed the button. It was her best friend Lucrezia.

"Ah, it's you…" she said disappointingly.

"Well, yes…I'm sorry…" Lucrezia replied a bit annoyed.

"Oh no…I didn't mean it that way…I just thought it was…" started Sally trying to repair the harm.

"I know…you thought it was Wufei…" finished Lucrezia understandingly.

"Yes…I'm sorry…I'm also very happy to talk to you…I think I need to…" said the doctor a bit sad.

"What's up sweetie? You look so down…" asked Lucrezia worried about her friend's sad expression.

"Is just…well, I guess I feel lonely…Wufei has only been gone for two days but…well, is just that it's the first time we separate since we moved in together…" explained Sally.

"I see…you know, I would feel the same…I used to feel very lonely before we had Zach…now, even if Milliardo isn't home, I still have Zach to keep me in company…besides, he's just like his dad…" said the short haired brunette.

"What, he's also 'incredibly good looking and absolutely adorable' as you put it when you married him?" asked Sally jokingly.

"No…Although I still think that about both my husband and my son, I meant to say that they are also a bit of a handful…I hardly have time for myself at all…" explained Lucrezia.

"Oh well…I wish I could say the same…is just that I don't think Wufei will ever take that step…" said the blond girl.

"What do you mean?" asked Lucrezia.

"I don't think he wants to marry me…I don't think he actually loved his wife but I think he does respects her memory so much…besides, he's too young…don't forget he's almost four years younger than I am…" explained the Chinese-American girl.

"Sally, I don't think those things are an issue for Wufei…have you spoken about it?" asked Lucrezia.

"Not really no…I don't think I should actually bring the topic up though…I don't want to scare him off…" replied Sally.

"I think that is a huge pile of bullshit…it's you who's scared…I think that if you speak to Wufei he'll consider your feelings…he's got a very strong sense of honour….It will be just a matter of speaking to him, maybe you should ask him where does he see this relationship going to…or what does he want from this relationship…it's up to you, you know him much better than I do…in any case, don't keep it all inside you…if I have learned something from my relationship is that it's better to speak up…keeping it all inside does not get you anywhere…" said the ex-OZ officer.

"Maybe you're right…I don't know…is just that, you know, Wufei is a really mature person, sometimes the highly intellectual way he speaks, makes me feel like if I was younger than him…he's just so cultured and reflexive…but yet again, sometimes he can be such a baby…it's very confusing…" explained Sally.

"That is called a MAN sweetie…most men are like that…they have two sides, a very mature one that impresses us when we meet them and then, sometimes for things that matter most to us, they can be so childish…but that is the part we learn to love…you should not destroy that part from them because is what makes them able to be so sweet and adorable and also, you should see Milliardo playing with our kid, sometimes I wonder who's having more fun, the kid or Milliardo…" said Lucrezia smiling sweetly.

"Ah well…I will have to speak to him then…now, I better let you go…" said Sally hearing in the background the cry of a baby.

"Ah yes…it's meal time…who needs a watch when you're a mother? Babies tell the time so much more precisely than any watch I've seen…" said Lucrezia smiling.

"I'll talk to you soon…" promised Sally.

"Sure, and good luck…" said Lucrezia cutting the communication.

Sally decided that she would talk to Wufei as soon as he came back. Maybe Lucrezia was right after all…

Trowa was definitely not looking forward this. Unfortunately, for Midii's sake he had to go back to the circus, after all, he had rescued her and had promised her that he would protect her.

Now he understood the commitment that had tied Heero to Relena all these years. Of course, even if the poor beggar did not admit it with words, he had fallen for her like a ripe apple. Trowa was still trying to decide what he felt for Midii…he was sure there was some kind of common feeling linking the two of them…

When he had learnt that Midii was being beaten up by that bastard, he wanted to shoot him. Actually, he would have done so if he had not promised with the other pilots that he would never kill again.

In any case, looking at the sleeping girl sitting next to him in the shuttle, he had much more important things to think about.

To start with, he had to speak to his sister. Catherine's wedding was in less than two weeks. He had promised to take her up the aisle a long time ago. Now he had to do everything he could to prevent just that…

"Are we there yet?" asked Midii with a sleepy voice.

"No…we still have a good half hour before we land…" replied Trowa.

"Ah…Ok…Tell me about the circus where you live…" asked Midii.

Trowa used the next half an hour to explain to Midii all about the circus…the way they lived, always changing places, seeing different colonies, different people…different cultures…then he told her about his animals…his lions, how proud he was of them and he also told her about the people he worked with. He used most of the time to talk about Catherine…about how much he loved her also about how much they fought…and eventually ended telling her about his sister imminent wedding…

"That does not make you very happy…does it?" asked Midii noticing the man's sad voice.

"Not really…I've just found her again…I don't want to lose her so soon…" admitted Trowa.

"Why would you lose her? Is she moving out or something?" asked Midii worried.

"No, of course not…is just that, she already does not have time for me now, imagine after the wedding where she will have her husband to take care of…" said Trowa.

"I don't think you're making any sense Trowa…from what you've said you are very close with your sister…I don't think that kind of liaison is going to break up just because she's getting married…but again, if you create too much trouble, she may end up getting tired of you…she's got the right to live her own life after all…you really should do your best to support her instead of being against her…even if she's making the wrong choice…it's her life and she's got the right to live it like she wants to…" explained Midii.

"What about you? You obviously made a mistake with Bill…" said Trowa damning himself for being so direct.

"I know…I did not make the right choice…but, I was lonely and…he said he love me…" admitted Midii adverting her gaze from Trowa's green eyes.

"I'm sorry…I didn't mean to be so direct…I'm…Why were you lonely? What about your father?" asked Trowa.

"He died…I couldn't afford his medication for too long then I started making some money with my singing, it was too late, my father was too sick and he ended up dying…then I met Bill…" said Midii.

"What about your three siblings?" asked Trowa.

"The youngest got killed during the war…a mobile suit fell on him while we were trying to escape…" replied Midii.

"And the other two?" asked Trowa.

"They decided to join Marimeia's army…I heard that one had got killed…the other one…I've never heard from him again…" explained Midii.

"So you were truly alone…and that Bill probably took advantage of it…the bastard…" stated Trowa feeling himself getting angry again.

"I guess so…I'm sorry for disappointing you…you never thought much about me anyway, did you?" asked Midii sadly.

"That's not true…I admired you for your bravery, after all, you had the guts to spy on a guerrilla group…also, I envied you…you knew what your real name was and had a family...I definitely thought of you as a much better and luckier person than I was…I suppose that it made me angry and that's why I drove you away from me…you reminded me of everything I did not have…" replied Trowa with brutal honesty.

"Oh Trowa…I'm sorry…I thought you were lucky because you had rid yourself of all feelings…" said Midii.

"Midii…a good friend of mine told me once that you has to live life led by your heart's emotions…if your heart is empty, then so is your life…" replied Trowa.

Midii was to add something to that when the hostess announced that they were about to land. Trowa did not give signal to tell Midii he wanted to continue with the conversation.

The move was not too difficult. They had found a tenant for both the apartment and the scrap yard fairly quickly, it was actually a young couple very much like themselves that wanted at all costs to stay together. The young man was an ex-soldier and, having survived the war, was looking forward a normal life. Duo thought how much that man reminded him of himself when the war was over. Desperate to get back to normality as soon as possible. After a whole life escaping and trying to stay alive as long as possible by any means, even the illegal ones, Duo was finally happy to have settled down. He had found a great partner in all senses. Hilde was someone that did not invade his personal space but understood when he needed the love and the attention and was only too happy to comply.

As an orphan, Duo had not known what being loved meant. At least not until he had found Sister Helen and Father Maxwell…but, even so, that was a very short spell in his life and he was back to being alone once more too quickly. Everyone thought of him as a never ending source of happiness and laughter. Nobody understood how much he had fought with himself not to become as miserable as Heero was before he met Relena. Only Hilde knew about his internal battle. His hardest battle.

He was happy to know that he had won that battle. He had managed to pull out of the misery of war keeping his inner child almost intact.

He believed that it was this inner child the true source of happiness. You could never be truly happy without keeping a bit of innocence in yourself.

He had managed to do that. And now, here he was, learning how to become a flying instructor with the person that he thought to be his direct opposite. Heero Yuy. Unfortunately for him, his inner child had been murdered a long time ago. That was why Heero had had so much trouble to achieve some happiness. Duo was only happy his friend had found Relena. She was the quintessence of innocence. No one was purest than her. It was exactly that innocence that drawn everyone to her. They all wanted a piece of it. They all wanted to be part of her dream. Even Heero. Even himself and Hilde.

Hilde herself was now with Relena. They had gone to the hospital together. Relena to have a scan done and HIlde for some more tests. They were going to try IVF at the end of the month. They had to. The doctors did not want her to have a miscarriage for this would only make it more difficult for her to get pregnant afterwards so, they did not want her to get pregnant naturally. Better keeping everything under control, they were told.

This was the main reason for moving to Earth. Firstly, there were much better doctors, secondly, the Earth's natural ecosystem would help them, everyone knew that, even thought the scientist had done wonders with the colonies, it was still not totally risk-free to give birth in the colonies…the artificial gravity was not as good as the natural one, also the chances of having problems during the pregnancy were higher than on Earth.

When they landed, Heero told Duo off for not being concentrated. Duo had to admit that his mind was as far away as it was possible and apologised to Heero. Heero was about to add something when he saw his wife and Duo's smiling like to little girls after seeing Father Christmas.

"Hey hon…what's up?" asked Duo being his curious self.

"You'll never guess…" replied Relena giving a quick kiss to Heero then, returning to Hilde's side added "Come on girl…don't you have something to say?".

"Duo…you're not going to believe this…they were doing the tests…and…wow…I'm just too emotional…" said Hilde starting to cry while smiling all the same.

"What she's trying, badly, to say…is that…Duo, you're going to be a daddy…the doctors don't know how it's happened but…Hilde's pregnant…" said Relena glowing because of the sheer happiness she felt for her best friend.

Duo wanted to say something but, for the first time in his entire life, he was truly speechless. Then, Heero's quick reflexes prevented him from hitting the ground: Duo Maxwell had fainted!

END OF CHAPTER TEN


	11. Chapter Eleven

A/N: This is a very eventful chapter. I just needed it so the fanfiction would not go on forever…sorry if things happen fairly quickly…Ah, as usual, thanks for the reviews…you are wonderful people!

Chapter Eleven

The day had finally arrived. Midii was helping her future sister in law to get ready. The blond girl was very impressed seeing how calm Catherine was. Even thought she had only known her for two weeks, Catherine had managed to amaze Midii. Firstly giving her a first rate welcome. Catherine had made every effort to make her feel home. This even before knowing her story.

Midii had only felt a bit out of place when Trowa had asked her to stay while he spoke to his sister. She had heard everything that Trowa had to say. It had been very moving seeing Catherine's reaction.

"Are you stupid? How could you think I could push you aside like a useless object? You're my brother for pity's sake!".

"Yes, that's what you say now but…what's going to happen in the future…Cathy, I don't want to be alone anymore…" confessed Trowa.

Midii had never seen him like that. He was so full of emotion. Mainly sorrow but, in the last two weeks he had seen an entirely different Trowa. He was different in every way from the no name person she had met.

"Don't worry about that. You'll never be alone anymore. I promise you that. Trowa, Michael may be my husband but, you are my same flesh and blood. I will always be there for you if you need me. But, you have to understand that I need to look after myself too. It may sound selfish to you now but, I need to make my own choices and live my own life…do you understand?" said Catherine holding Trowa's face with both hands.

"Yes. I do…is just that…I'm worried…and, how can you be sure that Michael is the one for you? He's so old…" insisted Trowa.

"Oh…Trowa…It's true, Michael is older than I am but that does not mean I cannot love him, in any case, I feel that he's the one…even so, it's just a feeling and like with every feeling it may change with time…for the best or…for the worst…but I think it's a risk worth taking…Trowa, being scared of your feelings just keeps you alone…don't forget that…" said Catherine.

Catherine then looked at Midii, then she diverted her gaze back to Trowa.

"The only feeling that I can guarantee that will never change is the love I feel for you…I already lost you once…I will not allow this to happen again…Now…we have a show to prepare…" and, with this said, Catherine released Trowa's face and turning around Midii asked,

"Midii, that is your name, isn't it?".

"Yes Miss Bloom…" Midii replied.

"Ok…I have two things to ask you: first, don't call me Miss Bloom, call me Catherine, you're not so much younger than I am; second, would you like to learn the art of knife throwing?"

Midii had been very reluctant to both things. She felt a bit intimidated by Catherine so it didn't came natural calling her by her first name. Knife throwing? That sounded so dangerous!

In any case, after two weeks, Trowa's sister had managed to get her to call her Catherine and the red head was teaching her how to throw the knives…surprisingly, she was quite good at it.

"Are you ready Catherine?" asked Midii.

"Almost…I just need to put this bloody thing in place…it just would not stay on…" replied Catherine talking about the small tiara that held the veil in the right place.

"You just need to put some hairclips here to help the tiara with the veil's weight…" said Midii pinning the portion of the veil directly connected to the tiara with some hairclips.

"Ah…that's better…Thanks…" said Catherine happy with the result.

"Cathy…are you ready? Everyone is waiting for you…" said Trowa from outside the door.

"Come in, I'm ready now…" replied Catherine.

Trowa opened the door, seeing his sister, the man seemed to lose his voice.

"Do I look so bad?" asked Catherine.

"No…actually…I…You look gorgeous…Cathy, I think I'm not taking you anywhere…" said Trowa leaving Catherine with the doubt of whether her brother was joking or not.

"I'm kidding you silly…Now, I think you're more than fashionably late…let's go…" said Trowa seeing that his sister had not got the joke.

The ceremony was beautiful. After they newlyweds had left for a week long honeymoon to the Moon, Midii and Trowa were left taking care of the tidying up. It had been a home made affair so they did not have a cleaning crew to help them except some circus staff that had volunteered to help.

"It was beautiful…" commented Midii enjoying a cold drink after the effort.

"Yes it was…I'm still a bit worried but…hell, what can I do…Catherine is even more stubborn than I am…it's a lost battle…" said Trowa.

"Talking about battles…I'm happy mine is over…" said Midii. Quatre had been a guest to the wedding, he had already left because he had to deal with some urgent business, before that he had told Midii that the judge, hearing his declaration regarding Bill's behaviour at the bar and the testimony that Sunflower had given, had decided to issue a two years' sentence in prison. After that, he would be in parole for at least another six months and, the judge had also decided to issue a restraining order that prevented Bill to go anywhere nearer than 500 meters from Midii for the rest of his life.

"Yes…I'm happy of that too…now, you're free to do whatever you want…" said Trowa looking at her.

"Yes I am…" said Midii with a very small voice.

"And…what do you want to do?" asked Trowa sounding a bit insecure.

"I would like to stay here…with you…" admitted Midii.

Trowa turned to face her and asked:

"Why is that?".

"Well…I'm actually getting good with the knife throwing thing…" Midii replied jokingly.

"Ah…really…I better watch out, with you and my sister around…you'll be a deadly pair…but…is that the only reason?" asked Trowa.

"No…" replied Midii.

"Is that so? And…tell me…what would the other reasons be?" asked Trowa taking a step closer to Midii.

"Only one…" replied Midii looking at Trowa briefly before turning her gaze away from him while rapidly blushing.

Trowa closed the space between them and said:

"I'm glad to hear it…" then lifting her head with his index finger under her chin, he bended down her petit form and, finding her lips, kissed her softly.

Three months later, the big event that all high society had been waiting for, was finally taking place. The entire Colonial Hotel in L4 was booked for it. All 600 of its rooms were full. The garden had already been set and a huge marquee stood there with the banquet ready to be served.

In one of the penthouse suits, Dorothy was directing everybody in what needed to be done. She looked completely composed. Like if she had been getting married all her life. Relena and Hilde, both beginning to show their pregnancies, where trying to stay out of the way of the many maids that were busy helping their mistress. Dorothy really looked beautiful, having such long hair, the stylist had the idea of using her hair as the veil. It was all filled with little white roses following a pattern. Then, from a tiara in the front, it fell a very small veil that was to cover her face and could be put behind over her head after the ceremony.

What was even more spectacular was the dress. It was in a perfect princess style, with a big low neckline that left her shoulders uncovered and a very generous part of her breasts. She was wearing a diamond and pearl necklace that matched the tiara and the earrings. The dress was done in the best white silk that was produced.

The skirt was huge and its tail covered a large portion of the floor. Relena thought of her own wedding and how much simpler it had been. She was honestly horrified over the size of this wedding. Again, Quatre's family was one of the wealthiest of the colonies and…the Catalonia's were a very old aristocratic family and, being the only survivor, Dorothy had accumulated a very vast fortune. Dorothy was almost as rich as Relena.

As soon as Trowa arrived to take her to the altar, Relena, walking close to her best friend, told the brunette about what she'd been thinking.

"Then, imagine how I feel…I only had a few friends and a nice home cooked dinner in my wedding…" said Hilde remembering her own wedding.

"Oh yes…well, Dorothy likes doing things in big style…" said Relena.

"Huge…you mean…" corrected Hilde laughing.

"Anyway, let's enjoy our last stay in outer space…from next month no more trips to the colonies for us!" said Relena.

The two women walked down the aisle behind the bride. There were over 800 guests there. Quatre looked incredibly handsome in his black tuxedo. He turned around and as soon as he saw Dorothy his eyes got all shiny and he smiled so much you could almost see his wisdom teeth. You could tell he was happy even though he would have preferred a smaller wedding.

Relena and Hilde aligned themselves with Sally, Midii and Lady Une. This last one was to be witness.

Lucrezia and Milliardo were left sitting by one side since they had to look after little Zach that was in one of his inspired days. He would not stop for a minute and Lucrezia had to run after him a couple of times. Lucrezia almost wished he had never learnt how to walk!

In the other side, Heero, Duo and Wufei were joined by Trowa as soon as he gave the bride away. Rashid was also there and he was going to be Quatre's witness.

After what probably was the longest ceremony in history, Dorothy became Mrs Winner. Everyone moved to the huge marquee to celebrate the event.

"I gather, since you never spoke again about it to me, that you never spoke to Wufei about you know what…" said Lucrezia having left Zach in the good hands of his aunt Relena so she could rest for a while.

"As a matter of fact I have…" said Sally mysteriously.

"And what happened?" asked Lucrezia worried about her best friend.

"Well…I asked him what did he want from this relationship and he said that he did not understand my question…I thought he was just being his usual self and then…" said Sally giving Lucrezia a kitten smile.

"What happened?" asked Lucrezia not being able to cope with the suspense.

"Well, he then told me that he had understood the question and that he was surprised because he thought we must have been psychic or something…then, he gave me this…" replied Sally producing a gold chain that was hanging from her neck and that went well beyond her neckline.

Hanging from it, a beautiful solitaire. Lucrezia's eyes grew to an almost unnatural size.

"Sally? Is that…" she managed to ask.

"Yes…Wufei has asked me to keep it a secret because he does not want everybody to hassle him about it…he asked me that, if I did not mind, he wanted to make the announcement shortly after this wedding…and, of course I don't mind…besides, I've enjoyed enormously keeping it a secret…" said Sally.

"Even from me…" said Lucrezia a bit offended.

"I'm sorry…I couldn't tell you through the videocom so I wanted to wait till we saw each other in person…Ah, I was also shocked when I found out about Relena's and Hilde's pregnancy…thanks for telling me!" said Sally now being her turn to be offended.

"Well, this is a draw now…besides, neither Relena nor Hilde wanted anyone else to know about it till it was safe…you know about the three months myth…" said Lucrezia.

"I know, I know…" replied Sally.

"Sally, by the way…who's that blond that is dancing with Trowa?" asked Lucrezia.

"I think Wufei said something like being Trowa's girlfriend…they live together in the circus or something…" explained Sally hiding her ring again.

The two girlfriends exchanged some more gossip while the party was going on.

Four months later, Heero was getting ready to leave the school. He had left Duo in charge since he had to meet Relena to go to the hospital for her last scan. She was due in less than two weeks and Heero was getting increasingly nervous about the whole thing. He was going to be a father and he could not wait to show everybody and most importantly, to himself, that he was capable of taking care of a small baby.

He went to the school's car park to get his car. He got inside and tried to start it. The car would not start. He tried again. Nothing. Getting out of it he got annoyed. This was impossible. He always kept the car in pristine order. What was wrong with the damn thing...it had to pick up the worst day to break down. Heero opened the bonnet. With only a superficial check, his highly trained eyes found the fault immediately. Someone had cut the cable that gave electricity to the starting engine. It had clearly been sabotaged. Heero thought of Relena. Something wrong was about to happen. He could sense it.

END OF CHAPTER ELEVEN


	12. Chapter Twelve

A/N: Thanks again for all reviews and for the support you've given to my workmate. He's much better now and the driver that had got injured is now out of danger…Everyone at the office tells him he's 'Unbreakable' like Bruce Willis!

Special note for Sweetangel4: as per your request, I've decided to include Wufei's announcement. I hope you like it!

Chapter Twelve

Sally parked her car in front of the hospital where she worked. It had been Wufei to convince her to get back to her medical career after the war so she was now working part time in this hospital while still working for the preventers.

Wufei had been right, after all, he knew her well. She truly enjoyed helping others to feel better. Sally was grateful to her husband for many things. Even though the Chinese man did not show it very often, he was a really kind hearted person. He would do anything for her, just as long as she did not bother him too much about it later. 'A simple thanks would do', he said to her more than once. Wufei was a very straightforward man but again he could be very mysterious sometimes...

She smiled remembering how fast everything had been. Good to his word, the minute Quatre and Dorothy had got back from their honeymoon in the country formerly known as Egypt, Wufei announced their engagement.

Even the way he had done it was special. He had sent to everyone a message saying:

'Just wanted to share with everyone that, I have asked Sally to do me the honour of being my wife and the crazy woman has said yes. We'll be getting married in two months time so I hope everyone will be there to celebrate with us'.

And exactly two months after, in a traditional Chinese wedding, Sally became Mrs Chang. She actually like her married surname better. Sally Chang did sound better than Sally Po. Very unconventionally, she had even changed her professional name and, everyone knew her as Dr Chang now.

Now, after quite a long time thinking about it, they had decided to move to New Port city. Its hospital was well known for being one of the best on ESUN. Relena had made it possible by founding it with her own money. She had actually done a beautiful work rebuilding the city after the last time it was destroyed.

Relena felt a bit strange. She did not want to get paranoid but it was the first time in her entire life she was going out of the house without Paygan. Her most trusted employee was not feeling well and Relena had insisted he had to stay home at least this once. Paygan was definitely getting old but the poor soul would not admit it. Relena was very worried about him. Heero, seeing this, had talked to the man reassuring him that Relena would be safe. Heero had asked Lady Une for an extra bodyguard for Relena. She now travelled everywhere with the chauffer and two bodyguards. More than enough, according to the blond girl's opinion, nowhere near enough according to that of her husband.

She got out of the car as soon as they arrived at the hospital. It was strange because Heero had told her he would be waiting for her and he was nowhere to be seen.

In any case, not wanting to be outside for it was rather cold being almost Christmas, she decided to go inside. Heero knew where the obstetrics department was so, he could very well reach her there.

On her way to the waiting room she saw Sally coming out the staff's changing rooms.

"Hi girl…how are you two doing?" asked the Chinese doctor.

"We're fine…but we're also massive! I can't wait to give birth…at least I will feel lighter!" replied Relena putting her hands on her very swollen tummy just to emphasise her point.

"Ah…well, you're almost there…aren't you?" asked Sally.

"Yes…two weeks more…the due date is New Year's eve…" replied the blond girl, then looking at her watch she added, "I better go or I will miss my appointment…".

Saying goodbye, the young diplomat left, closely followed by her two bodyguards. Sally stared at her for a second before going to start her shift. She suddenly hoped she and Wufei would also have a child someday.

Relena, meanwhile seated as comfortable as she could on one of the waiting room's chairs. She did a mental note about those chairs. She would get new, more comfortable ones for the hospital…how could people sit here and wait for hours!

She looked at her watch again. It was really strange. Heero was never late for anything. What could have happened?

'Oh get a grip…he's probably on his way…stop being so bloody paranoid' she thought telling herself off.

She blamed everything on her erratic hormonal level. Even though during the first months of the pregnancy she had felt perfectly ok, it had been after that she had started getting horrible mood swings. She could be happy one minute and on the verge of crying the next. She had to make a huge effort not to crack up every time something went even in the slightest wrong.

Then it was the food. She used to adore cheese. Now she couldn't stand the stuff. It made her sick. Also she had had a huge increase in her sense of smell. The palace's staff had to remove half of the flowers from the vases. Relena also felt sick with strong smells.

Also the weight increase had driven her mad. The gravitational centre of her body had changed which meant that she was nowhere near as agile as she used to be.

Yet again, she only had to feel the baby moving a little bit and she forgot everything. She got reminded how lucky she was. She was finally crowning her dream. She was going to have Heero's baby. They were married and they were going to become a family. A proper family.

Relena was lucky to have Hilde around. She and the brunette had had so much fun with the baby shopping. It had been hilarious dragging Heero and Duo around the mall trying to decide whether this pushchair was better than the other. Hilde had discovered a way to get both men interested. She asked Heero and Duo to test the stuff so it would be safe for the kids.

"You never know…they may be faulty…what happens if the pushchair's wheels fall off while carrying your child, huh?" asked Hilde to Heero.

Their reply had been comical. Both Heero and Duo started checking every single piece of every single buggy and, finally, after an extensive examination, they gave their approval to one model of pushchair.

Relena smiled remembering this. Her bodyguard looked at her like if she had gone crazy. She could not care less. She was too happy to care.

Hilde had been very good to Relena. Having her best friend close to her while sharing the same experience together had worked wonders for both women.

She was happy that Hilde had settled so well on Earth. At first she had been worried because Relena knew how much the German girl loved living in the the colonies but, as soon as Hilde had seen Duo happy with his professional partnership with Heero, she had also relaxed and had started enjoying their life there. Also the fact that the pregnancy, against all odds, had gone ahead so well, had helped Hilde to feel happier with everything.

Duo had also been good for Heero. Duo's natural ability to brighten up even the darkest of the situations, had helped Heero to put things in the right perspective.

The two couples were almost inseparable. Even Wufei and Sally whenever they joined them, felt a bit out of place. In any case, Wufei and Sally had very much their own lives. Wufei still enjoyed being by himself most of the time and Relena knew that Sally's best friend was non other than Relena's own sister in law.

Relena was happy with the fact that, slowly, everyone had settled down and that, peace was there to stay. She had even allowed herself the luxury of taking her very well deserved maternity leave knowing that there were no immediate threats for the peace they had fought so hard to create.

Suddenly, a nurse came out one of the doors and called her name. Heero was still not there. Relena started feeling angry with him. How could he miss their last scan? This was the most important one…the baby was almost formed now so they would be able to see its little face and everything. During the last scan she had done, over two months before, she had not been able to see much. She was looking forward this one…and Heero was about to miss it.

She followed the nurse inside. Both bodyguards stayed guarding the door. Relena went to get changed so the doctor could visit her.

Meanwhile, Heero had ran back to the school. He stormed inside his and Duo's office. Duo lifted his head from the paperwork he was doing and looked at Heero very surprised.

"Hey man, what are you doing here? I thought you had an appointment with Relena…" asked the American man.

"Yes…I still do but someone has sabotaged my car…I need yours…" replied Heero looking tense.

"Are you sure…who would do something like that? And why your car?" asked Duo getting up, grabbing his jacket.

"The wire connected to the starting engine was cut…where do you think you're going?" asked Heero seeing Duo with every intention of coming with him.

"I'm coming with you…" said Duo opening the door not leaving Heero any option but to follow him.

Duo told the school receptionist to close the school for them and to cancel all lessons for the rest of the morning.

Soon, both men were travelling in Duo's car. The braided man knowing from experience that, when Heero was so tense, it was better not to speak too much, decided to stay quiet. Surprisingly, it was Heero himself that broke the silence.

"I have the feeling that something is going to happen to Relena…".

"What makes you think that?" asked Duo keeping his eyes fixed on the road.

"The car has been sabotaged and my instincts are in full alert…something is definitely going to happen…" insisted Heero.

Duo, instead of replying, pressed the accelerator further down and went as fast as he could breaking several traffic rules.

After putting on the hospital robe, Relena went to the doctor's room. She was about to sit on the hospital trolley placed in the center of the room, when someone with a white doctor's gown came in the room. It was a man but the blond girl could not see his face. Relena's gynaecologist was a woman.

"Excuse me…where is doctor Newman?" Relena asked.

"I'm afraid today doctor Newman cannot come dear…" the man replied turning around to face Relena.

Relena was about to scream having recognised the man when she felt someone putting a piece of cloth over her mouth. After that, there was complete darkness.

END OF CHAPTER TWELVE


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Heero and Duo were arriving to the hospital when their car almost crashed against a van. Duo thought that he really ought to be more careful. He was going to apologise to the driver but the van drove passed them without even stopping. Duo chose to forget about it, they had other problems now.

Heero was too worried about getting to Relena so he didn't seem to pay much attention to the whole incident.

"See, her car is still here…she's fine…" said Duo seeing Relena's official car parked almost in front of the hospital.

"We'll see about that…" replied Heero stepping out of the car even before it had come to a complete halt.

Duo, parking the car quickly, followed him, he knew from experience that Heero waited for no one. Although the Japanese man had changed a good deal since the end of the wars, he still was as determined as ever when he set himself to do something.

They passed by the receptionist's desk almost running. The girl at the desk started shouting at them and seeing that the two men wouldn't stop, she went back to her workstation to call security.

Duo and Heero had almost made it to the obstetrics ward when a familiar voice, coming from behind, stopped them both.

"Heero? What are you doing here? I've been trying to call you…Relena…" started Wufei's wife sounding very worried.

"Have you seen her?" asked Heero turning around to face a very concerned Sally.

"Yes, well, it was a few minutes ago, her doctor and a couple of nurses were taking her somewhere with a wheelchair…Heero, she was unconscious…When I asked what was wrong with her, the doctor said she had fainted during the scan and were taking her to a different, more appropriate, examination room…that's why I was trying to call you but the school receptionist told me that neither you nor Duo were there…" explained Sally.

"Were her bodyguards with her?" asked Heero.

"…oh no! No! They weren't…I should have noticed it!!" replied Sally realising the huge mistake she had made.

With not time to add anything else, Heero started running to the room where they made the scans. Thank goodness he had been there before so he found it rather easily.

If Heero's instincts had been in full alert before, now, inside his brain an emergency alarm rang so loud he almost couldn't hear his own thoughts. He felt his heartbeat increase, his breathing was quickening so much he feared he would collapse. All he wanted to see was Relena safe.

Heero, followed by Duo and a very worried Sally, opened the room's door. They found both bodyguards lying on the floor, one next to the other, unconscious.

Sally ran next to them immediately. She checked their vital signs and was relieved to see that they both were alive. Using the room's phone, the American-Chinese doctor called for security and for some medical assistance.

"I'm so stupid! I should have seen that something was wrong…now that I think it over, the doctor did seem in a rush to get away…of course I thought that he was only worried about Relena and he wanted to get to the examination room as soon as possible…" said Sally sounding very upset.

"What did you just say?" asked Heero almost shouting.

"What?" asked Sally confused.

"You said 'he was worried', didn't you?" asked Heero.

"Yes…why?" enquired Sally.

Heero let out a very nasty swearing word.

"Relena's doctor is a woman…is actually the same doctor that takes care of Hilde…" replied Duo speaking for the first time in all that time. Duo was now beginning to see that Heero had been right about his instincts…Only God knew how Heero would react now.

The Japanese man grabbed the phone and dialled the number for the reception.

"Can I speak to Dr Newman?" asked Heero making a visible effort to stay calm. He waited for a reply and then he added, "Fine. Thanks…".

Without saying anything to anyone, Heero left the room running. Duo, before following his partner out of the room, said to Sally:

"You stay here and wait for security…I will make sure Heero doesn't kill anyone…".

Sally could have smiled…Duo, even in these kind of situations, still managed to keep his sense of humour.

They found Dr Newman's office and, opening the door, they found the same scene than earlier.

Dr Newman was sitting on her chair as unconscious as Relena's bodyguards. Heero felt almost hysterical. He cursed himself for not being able to stay focused with anything that had to do with Relena and try to force himself to stay calm. Duo called the reception so they would also send someone from the security staff and a doctor.

They were heading back to where Sally was when Duo stopped suddenly and almost shouted:

"Fuck! The van! Why haven't thought of it before?!".

"What are you saying?" asked Heero confused.

"The van…the one I almost crashed into earlier…I thought it was going too fast…normally, vehicles go fast when going to a hospital, not when leaving it…" explained Duo.

"Let's go and find it…" said Heero leaving the room.

"Heero, we don't even know the plate's number, where do you suggest we should start looking for it?" said Duo following him.

"The number is L4 987 DHJ" replied Heero.

"What the…Heero, you didn't even see the thing for more than two seconds…how?..." said Duo surprised beyond measure.

"It's difficult to get rid of some habits…it was part of Dr J's training: always observe and memorise what is around you…also I found rather odd that a van from L4 was here on Earth…" explained Heero leaving behind a speechless Duo.

'This guy is never going to stop shocking me…' thought the American man following the Japanese one.

Meanwhile Sally, after ordering security to perform a full check in the hospital, had headed to the nearest videocom, this needed the Preventers immediate attention so, Sally had decided to call Lady Une.

"Hello Sally…" began to say the Preventers chief but, seeing the doctor's grim face, she changed her tone of voice and her expression and asked "What's wrong?".

"I think Relena's been kidnapped…" said Sally not wanting to waste time uselessly.

"What? I'm on my way…I'll be there in half an hour…Sally I want a full report as soon as I get there, call your partner as well…and, does Heero Yuy know?" asked Lady Une.

"Ok for the report, I will call Wufei immediately and yes, Heero Yuy knows, he's here with Duo Maxwell…" replied Sally used to her superior's habit of asking more than one question at the same time and the fact that the ex-colonel expected a reply to all of them.

"Fine…like I said, I'll see you in half an hour…" Lady Une said closing the conversation.

When she turned around, she saw Duo and Heero walking towards her.

"I've called Lady Une, she's coming here as we speak…I'm also going to contact Wufei now and the security staff is running a full check in the hospital…I hope we'll find something or…maybe, with a bit of luck, Dr Newman or Relena's bodyguards will be able to tell us something…" said Sally as soon as the two young men had reached her.

"When Heero and I were coming here, we saw a van leaving in a hurry the hospital's car park…don't ask how but Heero has memorised its number plate so we are now going to check on it…" explained Duo.

"We're going to need a computer with access to the worldwide database…" said Heero.

"I'll take you both to the hospital's main computer room…" replied Sally, with her job as a preventer, the woman had access to every room of the hospital.

A few minutes later, Heero started working with the computer while Sally was calling Wufei. Duo called the school to tell the receptionist to close the school for the rest of the day and ask the staff to take the day off including herself. He also asked her to call Hilde to tell her that something had come up and he couldn't go home for lunch. Duo did not want to call her himself because she would see that something was wrong and he did not want her to get worried in her condition…After this, Duo went to help Heero with the research.

From the number plate, they found out that the van was indeed from L4. It had been rented there by someone called Maurice Louvin. Heero had even hacked the car hire company's database and had got Mr Louvin's credit card number.

By the time Lady Une and Wufei had joined them in the computer room, Heero, Duo and Sally had found out that the holder of the credit card used to pay for the rental was Genix, a very famous company that operated in the genetic engineering field. They had been the first company to produce genetically modified crops in the colonies.

They had also found out that the van had been registered as cargo in a private shuttle flight from L4 to New Port City's airport. Lady Une called the airport authorities and requested them to check all L4 flights. Lady Une gave them all details concerning the van. She asked to be contacted the minute they had something to tell her.

Duo, every now and then, checked on Heero. To everyone, the Japanese man seemed to be coping with everything quite well. Duo, knowing Heero better than anyone else, not counting Relena, of course, knew that it was all a façade. Heero was probably on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Unless they found Relena safe and sound shortly, Heero would explode. If that were to happen, Duo preferred to be anywhere else but near him. The American man could not blame him though, Duo would make feel very sorry anyone that did as much as to lay a finger on Hilde…

Lady Une was starting to think of an action plan when the videocom buzzed. Sally went to answer it. She had a brief conversation with the caller. Closing the communication, she turned around and said:

"Bad news…it looks like someone has spotted the van we are looking for…it was inside a shuttle that left the airport about 25 minutes ago…they've been trying to get in touch with the shuttle but they're not getting any reply…it's not even on their radars anymore…it seems it has vanished…".

Lady Une just stared at Sally while thinking carefully what to do next. Then she said:

"Ok…Wufei and Sally, you're going to go to L4 to check Genix's facilities. I will be sending you a search warrant as soon as I can. Heero, I guess that asking you to stay behind will be useless so you may join Wufei and Sally…whereas me, I will stay here to interrogate the witnesses…I want everyone to report the minute they find something, is that clear?" Lady Une said.

"What about me?" asked Duo feeling left out.

Lady Une looked at the braided man for a second.

"You can do whatever you want…" the ex-colonel replied.

"Ok then…Let's go to L4…" said Duo not thinking twice.

END OF CHAPTER THIRTEEN

A/N: Sorry for the delay! My social life is getting crazy…have too many parties to go to and tones of Xmas shopping to do! Arghh!! Don't even have a second to sit down and write! Anyway, thanks for your reviews and for the time you spend reading this…I'm so happy !


	14. Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

She just looked so beautiful. Standing there on the beach. It was a perfect summer day. The sky was as blue as her eyes. She was wearing her beautiful white summer dress. Her blond hair was caressed by the sea breeze. Heero had never been so much in love with her. He started walking towards her. Then Heero realised that, no matter how much he walked, Relena was getting further and further away…

He started running after her. However, Relena was slowly disappearing from his sight. Heero then started shouting her name.

"RELENA!!! RELENA!!! DON'T LEAVE ME!!! RELENAAAAAA!!!!

"Heero…Heero…!".

Heero woke up hearing Duo's voice.

"You've had a nightmare…" Duo said stating the obvious.

"What? When did I…" started asking Heero.

"You fell asleep soon after we took off…It's something I find funny about you…no matter how difficult the situation is, you still manage to get some sleep…" commented Duo.

Heero did not reply to this. He was still under shock because of his dream. One of the side effects that the tortures he had been forced to endure was that his dreams were always very vivid. They looked as real as the images that Zero projected and just like the Zero system, his dreams always showed him what he feared the most. Now, what terrified him was the possibility of losing Relena.

Looking ahead of him, he saw Sally and Wufei. The Chinese man was piloting the shuttle that was taking them to L4. Despite all the efforts, neither the Preventers nor the air authorities had been able to locate the shuttle that had escaped from New Port City. Sally and the three men only hoped that they were following the right lead.

"Thanks Duo…" Heero felt compelled to say to his business partner that was sitting next to him.

"What for?" asked Duo looking at Heero like if the Japanese pilot had suddenly developed a second head.

"For coming with us…you know…leaving Hilde and helping me…" said Heero realising he was still not very good with these things.

"Don't worry about it man. You know, Relena is Hilde's best friend, and she's also a very good friend of mine…and so are you. This is what friends are for…" replied Duo not giving too much importance to it.

"Well…anyway… thanks" Heero insisted before looking away to focus his attention on the laptop in front of him.

"Guys, we're almost there…what would you say if we call Quatre? He may be able to help us…no one knows the corporations in L4 better than he does…" proposed Sally turning around to face Duo and Heero.

"Sure…" replied Heero.

"Yeah…good idea…he actually owns half of them anyway…" replied Duo.

Sally turned back and, pressing a button from the console in front of her, dialled the Arabian man's private number.

"Hi! You're Sally, aren't you?" asked Dorothy.

"Yes…Hi Dorothy, I'd like to speak to Quatre…is he there?" asked Sally.

"Sure…I'll get him for you…" replied Dorothy leaving the screen.

After a few seconds, Quatre's pleasant face showed up on the videocom.

"Hi Sally…how are you?" asked with his polite voice.

"Hi Quatre…We'd like to ask you a favour…they've kidnapped Relena and we're following a clue that has led us here to L4. We wonder whether you'd like to help us…" explained Sally.

"What? Of course…don't go to the public airport…come directly to my house…I'll warn the airport authorities so they give you clearance…" said Quatre.

Some time later, Sally, Wufei, Duo and Heero were welcomed by Quatre and Dorothy at the couple's private airport. Quatre insisted to be informed immediately about every detail of what had happened and also about Lady Une's action plan.

Quatre, the minute he heard about Genix said to everyone that he would personally fix an appointment with the Managing Director right the next day.

"How are you so sure he'll want to see us?" asked Heero.

"Well, maybe for the simple fact that I've just given them a capital injection so they could continue their research…" replied Quatre with absolutely no arrogance whatsoever.

"Ah…that may help…" commented Duo. The braided man had always felt a bit out of place with Quatre. It wasn't that he didn't like the guy, is just that he felt overwhelmed about the huge amount of money that the man represented. It was funny that Duo didn't feel the same about Relena but, again, Relena was Relena…she was more than just money. She meant peace and, to Duo, peace was worth a hell of a lot more than money.

While Quatre made the call, the others stayed in the library and, using the Winner's database, they gathered all the information they could about Genix.

"What the…what's this?" asked Duo staring at his screen. Heero, Wufei and Sally focused their attention on what Duo was looking at.

There was a screen belonging to the Genix database saying 'access denied'. No matter how hard Duo tried, there was no way around it. Heero asked Duo to let him have a go.

Nothing. Not even Heero could get into it. Whatever it was, it had been protected so well that, not even a professional hacker like Heero or Duo, would be able to break into it.

The next day, after reporting to Lady Une, Sally and the others headed to Genix. Sally had had the search warrant faxed to her by Lady Une. If things got difficult, at least they could use it. Unfortunately, neither Dr Newman nor Relena's bodyguards had been able to supply any useful information. Lady Une informed Sally that they were doing their best to get as much information as possible.

The building where the company was located, was a beautiful construction made entirely with glass. The reception area was pretty impressive. Duo hated these kind of places. He hoped they would be done as soon as possible. Heero was just too restless and kept fighting with himself so he would not lose his self control. Wufei and Sally just looked almost as business like as Quatre. From the lot, the Arabian man was the one that played the part the best. Again, he was used to these kind of difficult meetings. Quatre was as good as Relena in these situations.

They headed to the Managing Director's office. As expected, only Quatre, Sally and Wufei were allowed in. Duo and Heero, not being preventers, were not permitted to go in. That was not a problem. Quatre had a transmitter that would let Heero and Duo hear everything that went on inside the room so, both men waited patiently outside sitting in front of the Managing Director's secretary.

"What a pleasure to see you so soon Mr Winner!" they heard the Director's voice saying.

"Well…unfortunately, this time is not to offer you more funds for your research. These two people here are to special agents from the Preventers, they would like to ask you a few questions and, I would personally appreciate if you cooperated as much as possible…" replied Quatre with polite but firm voice.

"Ah…well, I see what I can do…" said the Director. Heero immediately felt that the man had got nervous after hearing the word 'Preventers'.

"We thank you in advance…first of all, we would like to know what business you've had with New Port City in the last few days…" said Sally going straight to the point.

"New Port City? That was the capital city of the Sank Kingdom, wasn't it?" replied the Director. That gave Heero the impression that he was changing topic.

"Yes it is…we would like you to tell us if you have had any business with it recently…" insisted Sally.

"Well…We haven't had much to do with that city recently…" replied the Director.

"Then could you tell us who Maurice Louvin is?" asked Wufei.

"Who? No…I've never heard this name before…" replied the Director again giving Heero the impression that he was lying.

"Are you sure? Because Mr Louvin rented a van with one of your credit cards…I don't think you let strangers use your company's credit cards, do you?" asked Quatre.

"Ah…well, I didn't know about it…I will investigate…Mr Winner, as a businessman, you will understand that it is not possible to keep everything on check…" said the Director trying to justify himself.

"I cannot agree with you. Unlike you I do make every effort to know everything about that goes on in my companies…" replied Quatre not sounding very happy.

"Well, if you cannot help us then, I'm afraid I'm going to be forced to use this…" said Sally showing the search warrant.

"What is this? Where is it coming from?" he Director said surprised.

"As you can read it yourself, it's a search warrant and it came directly from the President…" replied Sally.

The Director was forced to comply and permitted Sally and Wufei to perform the search. Heero and Quatre just stood there. Again, not being a preventer, Heero was not allowed to touch anything. He felt so frustrated he could have killed someone. Quatre kept an eye on him just in case although he fully understood Heero's feelings.

Duo was no where to be seen.

After a while, Sally and Wufei had to give up. They could not find anything. Quatre thanked the Director and apologised for the trouble caused.

Heero's anger kept increasing. This was the only lead they had and they had found nothing. Relena was somewhere out there and, unless a miracle happened, they would not be able to find her. He felt impotent about the whole thing and he hated feeling impotent.

They were leaving the building when they found Duo sitting on one of the benches just outside the building. He was smiling. Heero could have killed him and would have if Duo had not got up and had come to him showing him a plastic case containing a disk.

"Guess you didn't find anything, did you?" asked the braided man.

"NO, unfortunately we didn't…" replied Sally sadly.

"Well…uncle Duo here has a present for you…Let's go and check this out…shall we?" proposed Duo.

"Where did you find this?" asked Sally who was sure to have searched in every possible place.

"I bet you didn't look inside the green house's office" replied Duo.

"Of course we did, we found nothing…" said Wufei offended.

"Did you also check the seeds' storeroom?" asked Duo.

The lack of reply from the Chinese man was a good answer.

As soon as they got back to Quatre's house, they went straight to the computer to check what the disk contained.

The information on it was encrypted but, unlike with yesterday's page, the disk was a piece of cake. It was obvious that the people that worked where Duo had found it, thought it was secure enough so they did not bother with much protection.

What they saw, as soon as they started opening the files contained in the disk, was definitely not good. The images shown a series of new mobile dolls and their blueprint. They were prototypes never seen before. And what was worst, they seemed to be made of gundanium.

Meanwhile, Sally had had an idea regarding the page they could not access the day before. She did not think it would actually work since it was a rather stupid idea but, when the page asked for the password, Sally typed 'mauricelouvin', to her immense surprise, the page actually gave her access.

Sally called everyone to see what she had discovered. It was a blank screen with the following text:

'independence year+x44 turn around'

It was some kind of code. What could it possibly mean?

END OF CHAPTER FOURTEEN


	15. Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

They were still discussing about the possible meaning of the code when someone rang the doorbell.

One of the servants went to open the door and found himself literally ran over by a very angry man that, without introducing himself, asked with a thunderous voice:

"Where is your master?".

"Mister Winner is busy at the moment…but if you please wait here I will announce you…if you're kind enough to let me know your name, sir…" replied the servant being as polite as possible not wanting to upset the man even more.

"Tell him that Milliardo Peacecraft is here and I need to see him immediately".

The servant left Milliardo there and, a few minutes later, came back accompanied by Quatre himself.

"Milliardo! You should have told us you were coming…we've found several very worrying things…please, do follow me…" said Quatre for once avoiding the pleasantries, they simply did not have time for these things.

The two men went to the library where everyone else was. Heero, seeing his brother in law, went all tense. He was sure that Milliardo would accuse him of whatever happened to Relena. After all, even if Heero still did not understand much about feelings he knew that Milliardo had not agreed very much with his sister's choice of husband.

In fact, while Milliardo explained that Lady Une had called him the day before and had taken the first shuttle to L4, the man previously known as Zechs, kept staring at Heero with a murderous look in his ice blue eyes.

Quatre, sensing the upcoming fight between the two men, told him about everything they had discovered including the code, hoping that this would distract them, at least temporarily.

"We are quite sure that 'X44' are the first digits of a colony or maybe some kind of satellite. The problem is with this 'independence year'…" explained the Arabian man.

"We don't even know if its from a country or maybe some kind of relevant date…" added Sally.

"What about the company? Maybe it had been incorporated in the past and it had become independent from the parent company…" suggested Duo hoping to be useful...

"I've read all about the company and it has always been an independent company…" said Wufei crushing Duo's hope.

Meanwhile Heero was standing there silently. His brain was racing trying to find an answer to the riddle. The problem is that he was too worried to have any clear ideas. He felt his anger building up again. Even if they figured out what the code meant, that did not mean they would find Relena automatically. They might be following the completely wrong lead. For what it was worth, Relena could have been somewhere else as far away from L4 as it got. Heero thought that they were wasting their time and the thought of Relena being held prisoner in her condition was enough to push him to do whatever it took to get her back. Even to kill again.

Without saying anything to anyone, Heero started walking towards the door. Quatre saw him and tried to stop him.

"Heero…where…" the blond man started saying, but Heero had already left slamming the library's door.

"We better follow him…" said Duo getting up from his chair.

Heero got out of the house and walked towards one of Quatre's limos. The chauffer was standing next to it.

"Give me the keys" asked Heero with such a furious look in his eyes that the driver did not hesitate for a second to comply.

Heero, taking the keys got inside the car just the minute that Quatre and the others appeared in the front door, they started shouting at him to stop. Heero couldn't care less. Starting the car, the Japanese pilot just drove away.

Quatre and the others knew exactly where Heero was heading so Quatre ordered the chauffer to get another car ready for them so they could follow him.

"God knows what he's going to do…" said Sally once the car was in motion.

"Whatever he does, it isn't going to be pretty…I can't believe how long he's lasted…I was expecting him to explode a long time ago…" replied Duo worried about his friend.

Heero parked in front of the entrance. Not even bothering with the receptionist he just got in one of the elevators and hoped he would get to his destination as soon as possible. Ignoring the screaming secretary as well, he opened the heavy door that separated him from his target.

He was sitting behind his desk reading some documents. The man dropped them on his desk and was about to protest when, in a quick move, Heero walked towards the desk and grabbed him by his neck while pulling out a gun.

"Now, you're going to tell me everything you know…and don't even dream of fooling me or I will blow up your miserable head…" Heero said pressing the gun against the man's head.

"You…you came here… yesterday…I… already told Mr Winner…" the man stuttered in total panic.

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO FOOL ME!! IF YOU DON'T START SPITTING ALL YOU KNOW, I'LL KILL YOU!!!" shouted Heero starting to lose his proverbial self control.

"If I were you, I would as he says, you know…he's not very stable mentally speaking…" it was Duo that, accompanied by Quatre, Wufei, Sally and Milliardo, had just got there.

Heero, of course, did not allow Duo's intervention to distract him one bit. Heero ordered him to lock the office's door.

"I WON'T TELL YOU ANYTHING!!!" Genix's director shouted.

Then Heero, without previous warning, fired his gun. The bullet hit just in between the man's legs making a hole in the leather chair. The man started shivering violently.

"Next time I'll fire it here" said the Japanese pilot pressing the gun against the man's throat. The barrel, still hot, burned the man's skin.

Duo and the others just stood there too shocked to do anything. The security staff started banging the door. Wufei feared that, if they moved, Heero would actually shoot him. Duo thought that, even if the man said absolutely everything he knew, Heero would shoot him anyway.

In any case, Genix's director, seriously fearing for his life, started speaking:

"There is a secret base in an abandoned mineral satellite. The satellite's name is X441947. It's a two hours flight north from this colony…" .

"What else…" said Heero pressing the gun further in.

"I don't know anything else…I swear…It's useless…you won't be able to get in it…it's guarded by new model mobile dolls…they're virtually indestructible…".

"If I realise you're lying to us, I will come back and kill you…" said Heero grabbing the man to make him stand up.

Meanwhile, Quatre had gone to the computer to check whether X441947 was indeed a satellite and if the information given by the director was true. It was and Quatre told Heero so.

"Good, now, you'll have to answer to some of their questions…" Heero said throwing the man at Wufei.

"You're accused of holding military information illegally, I'm afraid you'll have to come with us…" Wufei said while handcuffing the man.

"What are you talking about…" asked the director absolutely terrified.

"We're talking about a disk we found yesterday in this premises. It was full of military data…you know that it is illegal to have any kind of weapon or information in how to build weapons in a civilian facility…" explained Sally.

They opened the door and the security staff was about to intervene when Sally, showing them her preventer's ID, said:

"This is a preventer's case, you better stay out of it if you don't want to have problems…".

Duo, Quatre, Heero and Milliardo, followed Wufei and Sally, the Chinese man was literally dragging the director.

"Man…you scared me there…I thought you were going to kill him for real…" Duo said to Heero as soon as they were back in the car. They were heading back to Quatre's house to organise the trip to X441947. Genix's director had been taken in custody by a couple of agents from the preventers' station in L4.

"I wouldn't have…he was the only lead I had to Relena…I'm not that crazy…" Heero replied and then he turned his head to look through the car's window, leaving the other four people exchanging puzzled looks.

Quatre stayed quiet during the entire trip back to his house. As soon as they arrived, the blond Arabian said to everyone:

"I had hoped that I would have never had to tell you but, seeing the circumstances, I think I have no option left…please follow me…".

With this, he headed to the left side of his big mansion. The guys followed him without any comments. It was pretty rare to see Quatre so determinate.

Quatre stopped next to a metallic door with a number pad next to it. He then entered some code and the door opened to show some kind of elevator cabin. Quatre made a gesture as in to ask them in.

"Where are we going?" asked Sally breaking the silence.

"You'll see…" replied Quatre mysteriously.

The short ride came to an end and, as soon as the door opened, they found another one immediately in front of them. Quatre entered yet another code and the door opened to give them access. Inside it was all dark.

Quatre stepped in obviously familiar with the place. He then pressed some buttons that switched the lights on.

What the guys saw left them made their jaws drop. There, standing in perfect formation, Heero, Duo, Sally, Wufei and Milliardo saw five, new, perfectly shiny Gundams.

END OF CHAPTER FIFTEEN


	16. Chapter Sixteen

A/N: I'm so sorry but I have had a very busy week and, unfortunately, I won't be able to finish this before Xmas as I hoped. Tomorrow, we're leaving Milan to go to Northern Ireland to spend the holidays with my in-laws, so this means no computer for a while…I will finish this as soon as I come back and that is a promise. Anyway, I managed to finish one more chapter so, there you go…

Chapter Sixteen

They just stared at the machines hesitating to believe what their brain was telling them. It was really strange, after all these years, to stand in front of the Gundams Wing Zero, Death scythe, Heavy Arms, Sandrock and Altron.

"That…those…I…" stuttered Duo being the first to find his voice.

"Yes…they are Gundams…our Gundams…" replied Quatre trying to avoid looking at anyone directly in their eyes.

"But…they…were…I mean…we…" continued Duo not quite recovered from the shock.

"Quatre…we destroyed them…how did you…?" asked Wufei finishing Duo's question.

"I know…I rebuilt them after what happened in Mars thinking we may have needed them again in the future. I know that what I've done is illegal and I'm prepared to pay the price of my actions but, I honestly hoped that time would prove me wrong but, unfortunately, what has just happened…well, I think we will need every possible resource. Especially if we are going to face mobile dolls made of gundanium…" explained Quatre trying to justify his actions.

"Well…Quatre…I can't say I'm happy to see these things again, but…you're right…we will need them…" admitted Sally still shocked.

"Are they armed?" asked Heero.

"Yes…I made some adjustments to them…I've also enhanced some of the standard features…The blueprints that Instructor H left me were very helpful…" replied Quatre.

"Did you build them yourself?" asked Duo still incredulous.

"Of course not…I had some help…" said Quatre obviously not wanting to add more.

"You can tell them who helped you…" said a very recognizable voice coming out of Heavy Arms' cockpit.

"Trowa!!" exclaimed Duo thinking that the surprises today had not end.

"Trowa…I didn't want you to get involved…" said Quatre.

"Quatre, by helping you, I accepted every risk…" said Trowa.

"When did you…" started asking Sally.

"I came here as soon as Quatre heard about the news. He called me yesterday and I've been preparing all Gundams so they could be ready since I got here…just in case we needed them…" explained Trowa.

"Well…what are we waiting for?" asked Heero getting inpatient.

Some time later, the six men together with Sally placed all five Gundams in a huge carrier, originally used to transport very large quantities of minerals, then they boarded the shipper and, after the regular checks, they took off.

"What's wrong with Wufei?" asked Duo, just after take off, seeing the Chinese man's angry face.

"He didn't want me to come…" replied Sally, and then added in a louder tone of voice so her husband would hear her, "he thinks it's too dangerous!".

"Woman…you got your way, just let me be, alright?" replied Wufei not sounding quite as angry as he wanting to appear.

"Duo, let me tell you a secret, Wufei's anger towards me tends to be very short lived…" said Sally talking in a very low voice making Duo smile.

His smile disappeared when he saw Heero and Milliardo. Both men were incredibly tense. Duo found kind of funny how similar they were. Even though they had cordially hated each other ever since they met all those years ago, they almost had the same kind of personality. Cold and distant, yet they had both lost their fight to keep the feelings outside their hearts. And, in doing so, they had showed everyone how much love they could give to the right person.

Milliardo, had finally surrendered to Lucrezia and now, with little Zach were an enviable happy family. Heero, with much effort from Relena's side, had become a caring husband and, up to a few days ago, with the imminent arrival of their baby, their union was only getting stronger. Duo felt almost as angry as Heero himself…it was as though as destiny itself didn't want Heero to be happy.

Very shortly, Trowa, that was piloting the shipper, told them they had almost arrived. As in to make his point clear, Quatre announced that the welcome committee was already coming out the shuttle.

Heero not thinking twice, got up his seat and headed off to the back of the carrier.

"Hey! Heero…we have not decided who's going out yet…" started saying Duo following the Japanese pilot but stopped immediately when Heero turned around and, grabbing Duo's collar said in a dangerously low tone of voice:

"That is my wife and our baby out there…I don't think we have to decide anything…I'm going" .

With this, he released Duo, turned around and started walking again.

"Hey…man, I know how much you enjoy beating me up but…oh…it's useless" Duo said seeing that Heero was not listening, then turning around to face the others, said "Guys, here me and Mr Psycho are going out…".

"Ok…if we see you need help we'll come out as well…" said Quatre.

"I don't think we will need help…with Heero in this condition, it will be a surprise if he does not blow the entire satellite up…" replied Duo before disappearing through the hutch.

"What am I supposed to do? Just wait here? My sister is…" said Milliardo getting frustrated.

"We should not show all our cards just yet…It will be better to see what their true potential is before displaying ours…" interrupted Trowa sensibly.

Milliardo did not even reply. He was upset because Heero was out there and he did not even have a Gundam to pilot.

The four people left in the shipper saw the two Gundams starting to fight some of the mobile dolls.

"These suckers are resistant, aren't they?" asked Duo seeing that, although they looked very much like the old Aries suits, it took three times as much effort to damage them. They were programmed much better. Their movement was almost as accurate as a piloted mobile suit would be. Duo also had to admit that he had kind of lost his touch…it had been a long time since he had piloted his beloved Death Scythe.

Taking a few seconds the attention off the mobile dolls he was fighting, he saw Heero's moves. It looked as though as he had never stopped piloting his Zero.

Heero was so tense he had difficulties to keep breathing normally. His feelings while boarding Wing Zero had been mixed. A part of him had felt like coming back home after a long time away. Another one, the most human one, felt sad he had to be back there to fight again.

After the last war had finished, he had been so sick of fighting he had promised he would not kill anyone ever again. He just didn't have to. Now, though, he had a very good reason to do so, yet again, he also had two very good reasons not to.

It was the story of his life. It looked like he always had to fight conflicting emotions. It was hard living that way. Odin had told him to live according his emotions but, he had not told him how to choose between two opposed ones.

The mobile dolls kept increasing their number. Heero found it as difficult as the braided man to damage them, let alone destroy them. He kept getting frustrated. It just took too long. Heero knew that there was no time to waste. For what it was worth, Relena, after all the stress she and the baby had been put through, could had actually given birth…Heero got furious thinking of that possibility so, with this added fury, he started hitting the mobile dolls even harder.

Quatre had been truthful, the weapons of Death Scythe were a lot more powerful. The only problem is that, even with this improvement, Quatre could have not foreseen what they were facing now.

Duo had to keep an eye on everything that moved around him. His scythe had been trying to slice every single mobile doll. He had a hard time trying to even scratch them when, half by coincidence, half on purpose, he discovered that if he hit them long enough with the beam just underneath them, where the machine's 'arms' connected to its 'body', he damaged them very severely.

"Heero, aim your sabre underneath them. If you keep it there for a few seconds, you will destroy them…" Duo said informing his partner about his discovery.

"Roger that" replied Heero.

Now that they had found their weak point, it became much easier to get rid of them. This way, the shipper had less trouble getting closer to the satellite.

Seeing that Trowa had individuated a place to land the huge carrier, Duo went there to get rid of all mobile dolls around the area.

Duo was getting tired. He was definitely not used to this anymore…Of course, his tiredness just became yet another incentive to finish off the job sooner.

Heero had six mobile dolls surrounding his Gundam. He tried to get rid of the one on his back. It was dangerous, if the thing grabbed the Gundam from there, it would immobilise it. With one single move, he destroyed two of them.

Then, all the sudden, the mobile dolls stopped fighting. An image appeared in front of him. He couldn't believe his eyes.

"Hello Heero…I see you've found my little secret refuge…".

"YOU'RE DEAD!!" shouted Heero.

"No…that's what you wish…but I'm alive and now…thanks to your wife's cooperation, I will be able to finish my job…I have to say…she's still as pretty as I remembered…".

"What do you want from her?" asked Heero getting so furious he felt like his heart was pumping all the blood to his head and it would explode in a matter of seconds.

"I don't want anything from her…I just want the baby…she's useless to me…but your baby…it's got your genes and that is what I need…Dr J failed before because I believe the subject was too old. With a newborn baby, the whole process will be more effective. I will create an entire army of Perfect Soldiers…".

Heero just did not know what to say. It had been a huge shock to see that bastard alive. Trowa had told him that he had shot him himself. And now, his worst nightmare, the craziest person on ESUN there, telling him he wanted their baby to make a Perfect Soldier out of it.

Heero promised to himself that, this time, he would kill Dr Pieter van der Veert himself.

END OF CHAPTER SIXTEEN


	17. Chapter Seventeen

A/N: I'm back!!! Oh, I've missed my little laptop so much…!! I hope you've had a nice holidays. I got so many nice presents but the nicest one was my sister coming from Barcelona with her husband to spend new year's with us…We had such a great party…It made me very happy to spend some time with her after so long without seeing each other (almost six months!).

Anyway, I'm sorry for not having updated for so long! I hope you're still interested in my story…for those of you who are, there you have the next chapter:

Chapter Seventeen

Everyone in the shipper was silent. No one knew what to say or do. This was way beyond what everyone had expected, since Dr van der Veert had used the gundam's frequency, everyone had been able to witness his conversation with Heero.

Quatre looked at Trowa, the blond man could almost feel his best friend's feeling of gilt.

"Trowa…" Quatre started saying, breaking the silence.

"I shot him! I shot him and I saw his body falling to the ground. He was dead!" shouted Trowa interrupting whatever Quatre was going to say.

"You're not more guilty than we are, we all thought he was dead…" said Wufei.

"Yeah…don't forget it was my responsibility to clear everything up, I was the one giving the order to stop looking for him…" added Milliardo.

"This is not time nor the place to decide who's responsible for what. We have to find Relena, and soon…" said Sally.

"You're right Sally…We should try to land this thing now that the mobile dolls have stopped" said Quatre resolutely.

Trowa directed his attention to the shipper's controls. He had almost made it to the satellite's surface when the mobile dolls started attacking again.

Meanwhile, Heero was just too upset to focus. Everything was blurry around him. He just did not see how they would get through this. Before disappearing from Zero's screen, Dr van der Veert had warned him that they would never find Relena.

Heero had never felt more frustrated in his life. He just could not think straight anymore. His brain was collapsing with the overload of information. There were too many different feelings to process. Frustration, anger, desperation, confusion, fear…too many for someone still not used to them. Above all of those feelings, there was the deep love he felt for his wife. He couldn't bear the fact of losing her. It was too much for him to handle.

'NO! IF I HAVE TO LOSE HER I WILL GO DOWN WITH HER!' Heero thought and, in one last, desperate attempt, started overloading his twin beam cannon. If he could not get Relena back, he would blow up the entire satellite and himself in the process.

Duo, seeing his friend's intentions, placed his gundam in front of Zero and, opening their communication channel, said:

"Hey, Heero! We've got to fight those things not destroy the entire universe…" .

"Get out of my way!" shouted Heero in reply.

"Man…this is not going to fix anything…Heero, we need you now…Relena's somewhere inside there, we will find her, I promise…but we need to focus now..." said Duo now abandoning his humorous tone of voice to replace it with his most serious one.

"You don't understand…if she dies…I won't care anymore…" replied Heero.

"Precisely, I understand you very well, that's why we have to do whatever it takes to get her back…Heero...please…you're with me, aren't you?" asked Duo truly understanding his friend's emotions for he would have done the same if anything happened to his Hilde.

After a very short silence, Heero turned off Zero's cannon and, without replying, turned around and started fighting off the mobile suits that were preventing Trowa from landing the shipper.

Duo, happy to see that Heero was indeed with him, followed him while desperately trying to get rid of the mobile suits that were now attacking him.

Finally the shipper had touched down. Sally went to fetch her medical bag while everyone was getting in their space suits and getting their weapons. Each of them had two rifles. One armed with sleeping darts, the other with actual ammunition. Sally, as the highest ranked preventer present, ordered everyone to use the latter exclusively in case of a desperate situation.

Trowa opened the shipper's main entrance so everyone would be able to leave. Duo's gundam was covering the so they would make it to an entry that Quatre had seen earlier and they could leave the shipper's shields off so the two gundams could get back inside the carrier.

Duo, as soon as he had made sure that all five of them had made it to safety, said:

"Heero, you better store that gundam of yours and follow them inside. I will stay here and will try to join you as soon as possible".

"Duo..." started saying Heero.

"Don't thank me...I already know how nice I am…" replied Duo jokingly.

Soon, Heero had made it to the gate where he found Trowa forcing his way in. Unblocking the door was not too difficult, the problem was that, as soon as they had opened the door, they found themselves in front of two corridors. They both looked exactly the same.

"Alright, we have to separate. Milliardo, you go with Heero and Wufei. Honey, please, keep an eye on those two and take care they don't kill each other" said Sally ignoring the two men's glares, then added, "I'll go with Trowa and Quatre, whoever finds Relena first will inform everyone and will take her to the shuttle…understood?".

"Where do I go?" enquired Duo joining them.

"Have you stored your gundam and turned the shipper's shields back on?" asked Wufei.

"Of course, who do you think I am?" said Duo offended.

"You better go with them…" interrupted Sally and, not wanting to waste time with useless arguments, started to walk along the corridor on their left.

Heero copied her taking the right one. After walking for quite a while Heero started getting even more nervous. Milliardo was also very tense and Wufei…well, with him you could never know. Duo had the urge to tell a joke or something else just for the sake of breaking the tension up but, giving it a second thought, Duo realised that none of his three companions would appreciate it so he chose to stay quiet. After all, there were less painful ways to kill oneself…

The walked for a long time following all the bends and climbing up and down all of them mapping the way so they could find where they had come from.

Suddenly, Heero stopped and put his left index finger on his lips asking everyone not to make any noise. Then moved the finger and pointed at something with it.

The others heard it too. There was some kind of noise coming from above them. Air. It was an air duct. Taking a few steps, Heero saw a small entry leading to it over his head.

Milliardo, Wufei and Duo understood what Heero was trying to do. If there was an air duct, there was at least a part of the satellite that had been conditioned for people to live in and, that surely meant that, if they followed the air duct, they would reach it.

Milliardo and Wufei helped Heero up so he could unscrew the cover so he could get in it. Duo kept guard in case they were attacked. The braided man was not the only one to feel uneasy about the fact that they had not been attacked yet.

Meanwhile, Sally, Trowa and Quatre had not been that lucky. They had already knocked out a few guards. They had found a computer port and Trowa had already connected his palm held computer to it and was trying to hack in the mainframe in order to get any useful information.

"I've got it. I've found where the mainframe is, I've also downloaded the satellite's map so we just have to follow it…" announced Trowa.

"Great. Relena should be somewhere near there…" said Quatre hopeful.

"Let's go…you lead the way Trowa" said Sally getting inpatient.

"Sure thing…" replied Trowa starting to walk.

"Duo here…what's up?" asked Duo hearing his radio beep.

"This is Quatre, we've found the main computer. We're heading towards it as we speak. Trowa is sending you the map he's downloaded to your computer…Shall we meet there?" asked the Arabian man.

"No…It's better if we surprise them. They will be too busy with you guys…They won't expect us to come out from the air duct Heero's just found…" said Duo.

"Ok then…please confirm the reception of the map and…good luck" replied Quatre at the other end.

"Same to you old friend…same to you…over" said Duo closing the communication.

The braided man told everyone about the other group's discovery and about his plan.

"I think it's a good idea Duo, but I think it would be even better if we split up, I'll go with Heero through the air duct and you two could follow the corridor, this way we will have a three way attack..." proposed Milliardo getting a shocked look from everyone, he was actually volunteering to go with Heero!

"Fair enough…Let's go Duo" replied Wufei not waiting for an answer starting to walk.

Duo started following him not having any other option while Milliardo and Heero climbed to get inside the air duct.

After a while, Duo was getting tired of following Wufei like a puppy when both men stopped suddenly.

There were two guards in front of a door. Wufei turned around briefly to look at Duo and, after seeing that the American man had understood his intentions.

Extracting their rifles, the ones with the sleeping darts, they aimed at the guards' necks and, with a precise shot, knocked out both of them.

Relena heard some noises coming from outside the room that had held her prisoner since she had been kidnapped.

She walked towards it and tried, for the umpteenth time, to force it open. Not even with the basic tricks that Heero had taught her, she still couldn't get the damned thing open. This time though, for her immense surprise, the door actually opened.

"Duo! What are you doing here?" asked Relena not believing her eyes.

"Rescuing you princess…" replied Duo with a huge grin seeing that, not only Relena was relatively ok but, she was also still very obviously pregnant.

"Let's go…you've got to get her to the shipper…" intervened Wufei.

"Sure…can you walk?" asked Duo looking at Relena.

"I think so…" replied Relena not sounding as sure as she wanted to.

"Alright, Duo, take her to the shipper, I will follow alone so I get to the guys…" said Wufei.

Duo, passing his arm around Relena's waist so she could support herself on him, was about to start walking her to the carrier when, suddenly, Relena's knees seemed to give way at the same time that the girl let out a scream.

"What's wrong?" asked Duo concerned.

"Can't you see idiot? She's having contractions…" replied Wufei matter-of-factly.

"I'm sorry guys…" said Relena with a very small voice when it seemed that the contraction was almost over, then she added with an even weaker voice "I think my water's just broke…".

END OF CHAPTER SEVENTEEN


	18. Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

Getting through the air duct was not too difficult, Heero and Milliardo were still in perfect shape. The map that Trowa had sent to them had been priceless for them to find their way.

They were unscrewing a cover that according to the map was placed right on the top of the room that contained the mainframe when they heard gunfire. Heero finished the job as quickly as possible and, after checking with Milliardo to see if the older man had understood his intentions, the Japanese man jumped from the duct to the floor, then rolled on himself to take cover behind a metallic closet.

Milliardo started firing as soon as he landed on the ground. Sally and Trowa were covering Quatre while he was trying to force a door placed on one of the room's walls. There were at least fifteen guards in the room and some more were now coming in. The situation was getting desperate.

Heero grabbed his rifle and started firing as well. The guards, besides outnumbering them, were firing with real ammunition and that gave them a huge advantage. Heero wished he could do the same but understood that, in this period of peace and him no longer being a soldier, he would be committing a crime.

Getting tired, he told Quatre to stop and to cover him while he placed explosives around the door's lock. Heero still believed that blowing things up was faster and much more practical.

Wufei, while running towards where his wife and the others were, grabbed his radio and said:

"Sally, do you copy?".

"Yes, I copy you, Wufei where are you?" asked Sally

"We've found Relena…she needs you Sally. She's having contractions and her waters have just broken…" informed Wufei.

"Oh my gosh…where is she now?" asked Sally alarmed.

"Duo's taken her back to the room where we've found her, I'm sending you the route you've got to follow…" replied Wufei, then he added "What the hell is this? Sally, I've just seen something, get to Relena, she needs you…".

Duo just did not know what else to say nor do. Relena seemed to be in an enormous amount of pain. He tried desperately to remember what he had learned from the course that he had followed with his wife to prepare her for the labour.

"Relena, I think you've got to slow down your breathing while you don't have the contractions and you've got to breath faster when you're in the middle of them…actually, I think we both need to breath…" said Duo feeling really impotent.

"I'm so sorry Duo…" started saying Relena only to be interrupted by yet another contraction.

"Don't worry about this now…you've got other problems now…" replied Duo trying to think of something supportive to say.

Relena was lying on the bed propped up with Duo's help that was supporting her with his arm. Her doctor had warned her about this pain telling her to imagine the worst period pain and multiply it by one hundred times, this was supposed to help her figure out the amount of pain involved. Now that she was feeling it first hand, she made a mental note to tell her doctor that the pain was a lot worse than that.

The contractions were getting longer and more frequent. Relena started now feeling the pressure from the baby's head. If everything else had not done it before, this entirely freaked her out. Completely beyond her control, she started crying.

"I don't want my baby to be born here…Duo…please…I want a hospital, I want drugs…I'm scared…".

Sally, with all the confusion had not been able to speak to anyone to tell them where she was going instead she had started running through the corridors following carefully the route her husband had sent to her. The last thing she needed now was getting lost. She was grabbing her rifle with her right hand and the medical bag with her left. She kind of hoped to find Wufei half way to where Relena was but that was not the case.

Instead, turning around a corner, found herself in front of a group of six guards. Sally turned around trying to get away from there but it was too late. One of the guards had seen her and soon she found herself running in the opposite direction from where Relena was.

She kept running till she crashed against someone. She was about to throw a punch when a voice stopped her:

"Hey…woman, it's me!".

"Wufei! Six of the guards are following me…" said Sally warning her husband, then remembering their last conversation, the American-Chinese asked Wufei, "What did you find?".

Wufei was about to tell her when the six men that were following Sally caught up with her.

"Sally, whenever I tell you run for all it's worth…you've got to go to Relena…I don't know for how long Duo is going to cope by himself…the girl needs a professional now…" said Wufei running towards the group of men while shouting "NOW, RUN!!".

Sally even though she was worried about Wufei, did what her husband had told her and started running towards where Relena was. Unfortunately, one of the guards spotted her trying to get away and charged against her. She had to let go of her bag so she would be able to fire her rifle.

A few instants later, Wufei had knocked out four of the six men and Sally had shot at the other two. Just when she was looking around herself to find her bag, they heard another group coming from another corridor.

"Sally, you've got to go…" said Wufei.

"I can't find my bag…" said Sally desperate.

"Forget about it…You need to get to Relena and take her to the shipper as soon as possible, trust me…" said Wufei pushing Sally in the direction where Relena was.

Sally, not having another option, started running again while Wufei ran in the opposite direction.

Duo was the happiest man on ESUN when he saw the American-Chinese woman entering the room. His smile faded when he saw Sally's expression.

"What's wrong?" asked Duo.

"Relena sweetie…I've lost my bag and I don't have anything to give you for the pain…You'll have to be very brave, alright?" said Sally ignoring Duo's question.

Not getting any reply from a very distressed Relena, the doctor asked Duo how far apart the contractions were.

"I think they're coming every minute or so…" replied Duo.

"Alright…Duo, you're going to have to help me…now, whenever we get a contraction, you'll have to hold Relena in a semi sitting position then whenever the contraction is over, let her lay down so she can rest…" said Sally trying to give Duo a crash course in midwifery.

"Sure…" replied Duo getting increasingly nervous, he could handle anything but these kind of things…and, after all, Relena was not even his wife…this was supposed to be Heero's job, not his…

"Sweetie…I'm going to take a look now, are you ok with that?" asked Sally quite superfluously since Relena didn't really have a choice in the matter.

"I don't want to give birth here…" replied Relena stubbornly while Sally placed herself at the bottom end of the bed to start examining the young politician.

"I know baby…I know…unfortunately we're not going to be able to make it to the shipper now…how long have you been having contractions?" asked Sally trying to distract Relena while getting the information she needed.

"I don't know… I think a few hours…I've been trying to open the door since no one seemed to hear my screams for help…" replied Relena tiredly.

Sally swore almost inaudibly, Relena had been through the entire pre-birth process all by herself, no wonder she was so upset.

"Relena, you're ready…from now on, you'll have to push every time you'll get a contraction…is that ok?" said Sally seeing that the dilatation was almost complete.

Duo wished he had Heero's ability to disconnect from the world. Hearing Sally talk about pushes, dilatation and things like that was making him sick.

Suddenly, a huge contraction hit Relena. Duo propped her up as Sally had instructed him to do.

"Now Relena, push now…" said Sally.

Relena pushed with all her might. Fortunately, she remembered how to regulate her breathing through the contraction, the small problem is that the theory sounded much easier than the practice.

Meanwhile, after what it had seemed an eternity, the guards had stopped coming in and there were many of them laying on the floor unconscious.

The door that Heero had blown up had shown another empty room. That room had no furniture and there were no more doors.

Then, a voice, clearly belonging to Dr van der Veert, said:

"So, you've made it here…congratulations…but, like I said, you'll never find your wife…not alive anyway…".

Heero felt like shooting at something. He was simply furious for not being able to do anything useful.

Trowa had hacked into the mainframe and had managed to disconnect the mobile doll control system.

Quatre and Milliardo were trying to get information from one of the guards that was now waking up. The Arabian knew that the effects from the sedative would prevent any of them from posing a serious threat but, just in case, Milliardo and Quatre had tied the guards by their wrists.

Their interrogation was not getting anywhere and Heero was getting increasingly nervous. Then, Wufei came into the room running.

"Guys I have some very good news and some very bad ones…" said stopping in the middle of the room.

"So, what are you waiting for?" said Heero almost shouting.

Ignoring Heero's threatening tone, Wufei said:

"Ok, the good ones is that we've found Relena and she's now with Sally and Duo. I've also found the entry of Dr van der Veert laboratory. The bad ones is that Relena's giving birth to your child as we speak…"

END OF CHAPTER EIGHTEEN


	19. Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

Heero looked at Wufei as if he had not fully understood what the Chinese man had said. Then, as if he had suddenly acknowledged Wufei's words, Heero's gaze moved to focus on Milliardo.

"Go…you've got to go to her…" said Milliardo understanding Heero's feelings.

"Where is she?" finally managed to say Heero.

Wufei explained Heero the way he had to follow and he started walking to the door when he stopped like if he had suddenly remembered something.

"What happens if you find Dr van der Veert?" the Japanese man asked.

"We'll make sure he does not escape…at all costs…" replied Milliardo very determined not to let the man that had cost the life of his sister's unborn baby get away once again.

Hearing this, Heero turned around and started running towards where his wife was.

Wufei, without saying anything, started walking to the laboratory's entry. Everyone, of course, followed him without asking any question.

They entered the laboratory knowing that they could find anything and anyone there. All four men were holding tightly to their rifles. Even though they had prepared themselves for anything, what they saw inside the laboratory was too sickening for words.

In perfect display, there were huge glass jars containing the results from Dr van der Veert's genetic experiments. He had obviously tried numerous times to clone Heero with the genetic material he had kept from when they had 're-trained' him.

"Guys, take a look at this!!" Quatre suddenly shouted. The other three men looked through a glass pane to see at least fifty mobile dolls in perfect formation waiting to be used. By the looks of them, they were fully armed. Not only this, but next to them, there was a mobile dolls' manufacturing chain.

Wufei started filming everything so they gathered as much evidence as possible. They only had to find the responsible for all this madness. Unfortunately, Dr Pieter van der Veert, was nowhere to be seen.

When Heero found the room where Relena was, she was really close to her limit. The lack of a full gravity made things even more difficult since there wasn't the extra push that gravity gave so Relena had to make an even grater effort with the pushing.

Sally was beginning to get worried. Relena would not last too long without some kind of anaesthesia, Duo was now constantly looking at the ceiling since he found everything altogether too gross to keep looking at what was going on.

"Come on baby…one more push…I can see the head now…you've got to be this brave only for a little while…" said Sally not really knowing if her words of encouragement were really helping.

"Relena, I'm here…I'm sorry it took us so long…" Heero said as he entered the room.

"Oh…thank goodness…" said Duo seeing his best friend.

Relena, too tired to speak, just turned her head to look at him and gave him the smallest of the smiles. Heero was terrified, she looked so weak…this was inhuman...no one deserved to give birth in those conditions.

"I'll take over here…" said Heero relieving Duo from his task. Just at the same time yet another contraction hit Relena and the girl started pushing again.

"I'll go and help the guys then…" said taking his radio to call Milliardo to ask him where they were. He looked back and smiled seeing Heero and Relena finally reunited.

With Duo having left the room, Heero and Sally refocused their attention on Relena. The American-Chinese doctor was really worried. The girl was just too exhausted and Sally did not think she would cope with much more.

Besides this, Sally had kept checking Relena's pulse and it was now getting dangerously slow. Relena's usual rosy complexion, was now as white as the sheets from the bed where she was laying. That was definitely not good taking in consideration she should be deeply blushed due to the tremendous effort she was making.

Heero kept brushing the now wet blond locks away from his wife's sweated face. Sally was amazed seeing the amount of tenderness Heero was showing. Maybe he had not expressed it with words but, Sally was sure that Heero loved his wife deeply.

Relena was now pushing again, the baby's head was now almost completely out. One more push and its little body would finally come out.

Sally was about to ask Relena for another push when she realised that the girl was drifting in and out consciousness. Sally, knowing that she did not have any option, started pulling the baby out herself trying to be as careful as possible not to damage neither Relena nor the baby.

As soon as the baby's body was out, Sally realised what was wrong. An abnormal amount of blood followed the baby. Relena, more than likely, had some kind of internal haemorrhage. Sally now recognised all the symptoms, Relena was cold, she was too white and her pulse was faint. She was suffering a shock and Sally knew that, unless Relena got to a hospital really soon, she would not make it.

Sally laid the baby carefully on the bed next to Relena. It was a boy. A beautiful baby boy. Sally checked him thoroughly and found nothing wrong with him. She lifted him and slapped his little bum. The baby started crying energetically. He was perfectly healthy. Sally grabbed one of the pillows and, removing the pillowcase, wrapped the baby with it.

"Heero, Relena, you've got a beautiful baby boy…" said Sally hoping that the news would help Relena to stay conscious.

"Relena?" said Heero seeing his wife's lack of reaction. Then he realised that Relena was unconscious.

"RELENA!!! WHAT'S WRONG WITH HER?!?" shouted Heero.

"Heero, we need to get her to a hospital soon…she's got an internal haemorrhage…" said Sally still holding the baby.

"CAN'T YOU DO SOMETHING? YOU'RE A DOCTOR FOR PITY'S SAKE!!" Heero shouted getting almost mad with the worry.

"I can't…I've got nothing to give her…I've lost my bag…we need to get her to the shipper now…" said Sally feeling so bad she could have cried.

Hearing this, Heero took Relena in his arms not caring about the blood that was now staining the space suit he was still wearing. With his wife secured in his arms and knowing that Sally followed him closely with his baby son, Heero started walking towards the shipper.

Duo was walking to where the other guys were. He had almost made it to the laboratory when Duo saw a group of four people sneaking out one of the rooms. At first Duo thought it was yet another group of guards but, taking a second look, he recognized one of them.

The realisation hit home almost instantly. It was that fucking bastard. The one that had started all this mayhem: Dr Pieter van der Veert himself.

Duo, not thinking twice and grabbing one of the rifles he had stored on his back, ran behind the group and, without giving them time to turn around, fired three sleeping darts knocking out the three guards that accompanied the doctor.

"Right, now, you better stop right there. I may actually spare your life…" said Duo with his darkest voice.

"Ah…you're one of Heero's friends, aren't you?" asked the doctor turning around and without waiting for a reply, added "Well…and what do you think you're going to do…are you going to shoot me with those sleeping darts?".

"That's an idea…" said Duo shooting him, then, something strange happened. The doctor did not even wince when the dart pierced his left shoulder and he did not dropped unconscious like every one of the guards they had shot before.

"Don't you realise? I've got so many bionic parts that no matter how much anaesthesia you gave me, you won't knock me out…on the contrary, you're very much human…" said the doctor pulling out a gun. He was ready to shoot him when, in a quick move, Duo got the other rifle and, started shooting.

When the first bullets hit him, the doctor looked almost surprised. Duo, just for safety, did not stop after the first three shots. He kept firing till the rifle ran out of ammo.

"DUO!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" shouted Quatre that, like the rest, had come out the laboratory because of the shooting.

"Is that…??" started asking Trowa. Millardo was just too happy to see that bastard dead to say anything.

"Yes Trowa, it's HIM, and Quatre…technically, he was already dead…I cannot be processed for the death of a dead person, can I?" said Duo looking at everybody wickedly.

"For once, you're right there…in any case, I don't have any intention of reporting you…I have not seen you shooting him anyway…" said Wufei confirming Duo's theory.

"Well, you're the preventer here…if you say you've seen nothing, we'll all say the same…" said Quatre looking around himself to see Milliardo's and Trowa's nods of agreement.

Suddenly, something moved behind Duo, then Trowa, with a swift move, grabbed his rifle, the one with real ammunition, and shot three more times at the doctor.

"Now I can say again I have never failed a mission…" said Trowa with what looked dangerously like a smile.

"Trowa…careful there, you may end up being better than me at making jokes!" said Duo almost laughing.

"I don't want to ruin your fun but I rather get to my sister now…" said Milliardo reminding everyone what they were supposed to do there.

"You're right…this time though, this sucker is not going to go anywhere…this is just in case all those shots aren't enough…" said Wufei tying Dr Pieter van der Veert.

They were about to start walking when Quatre saw a red light starting to blink coming from the wristwatch that the doctor was wearing.

"Guys…what is this?" asked Quatre pointing at the light. Then, before anyone could speak, a female electronic voice announced something that made everyone stare at each other in disbelief.

'AUTODESTRUCTION PROCEDURE ACTIVATED. THIS SATELLITE WILL DESTROY ITSELF IN FIVE MINUTES'.

END OF CHAPTER NINETEEN


	20. Chapter Twenty

A/N: Well guys…I've been very productive in these three days! Here is the twentieth chapter. Only one more to go!!

Chapter Twenty

Sally was in trouble following Heero. She couldn't believe how fast he was running. Even though he was carrying Relena in his arms he still managed to run so fast she really had problems keeping the pace. The baby had been crying all the time, Sally understood why: he needed his first meal and urgently.

As if the whole thing was not enough, they started hearing the auto-destruction warning. For one second, Sally thought it was some kind of sick joke. Then, seeing Heero running even faster, realised that the threat was real and started running faster trying to protect the baby from the brusque movement that the sprint provoked.

The first one to move was Trowa. He knelt next to the doctor to inspect the wristwatch, looking at it with more attention, realised it was not a wristwatch, it was some kind of device that measured the heart beat. Now it marked zero and, written beneath the number, the following words:

AUTODESTRUCTION : ACTIVATED.

Trowa felt his heart sink. The bastard had planned everything till the end. He had even planned that, in the event of his death, the entire satellite would be destroyed. Turning around slowly, informed everyone about his discovery.

Wufei pulled out his radio to contact his wife, now, no matter how, they all had to get out of there.

"Sally, do you copy me?".

"Yes…Wufei, Heero and I are carrying Relena and her baby to the shipper…what the hell is going on?" replied Sally, Wufei noticed her panting and realised she was already running towards the carrier.

"We've killed Dr Pieter van der Veert and he had some kind of device that has activated the auto-destruction process. We've got to leave this satellite…ask Heero to prepare the shipper…we'll be joining you as soon as we can…over" said Wufei closing the communication not wanting Sally to ask any question, then, speaking to his companions, added "Guys, Heero and my wife are leaving as we speak, Milliardo you're an uncle now…the baby's just born…".

Milliardo felt, for one brief second, incredibly happy. Then, they were about to leave but, for everyone's consternation, Quatre realised that, if the satellite exploded, it would kill all the sleeping guards.

Unfortunately, the guards were just too many and, even if they tried to carry between all four of them, it was just not enough time left to complete the operation and take off safely.

Everyone stared at each other expecting that, like in the action movies they had watched so many times, someone would come up with a brilliant idea. Sadly that was not the case.

Finally, Milliardo, losing patience and knowing that Relena, even with Sally's help, probably needed urgently proper medical assistance in an adequate structure, said:

"I don't think we have any option left…we will have to leave them here…at the end of the day, they knew what they were facing when they decided to betray ESUN with their criminal activities…".

"But Milliardo…they may be innocent…" protested Quatre.

"That is only a conjecture, we can't be sure. What we do know for sure is that my sister IS innocent and we have to get her to a hospital…" insisted Milliardo starting to run towards the shipper not caring a thing about what the others thought.

"He's right…no matter how unjust this is, we have to leave or we will all get killed…" said Wufei following Milliardo. Duo followed them, for once, not saying anything but looking sombre nonetheless.

Quatre was shocked, he couldn't believe that they had all taken this decision without any kind of common consultation.

He would have not moved had not been for his best friend.

"Come on Quatre…they're right…we have to go…think of Dorothy…" Trowa said taking one of the Arabian man's arms.

Quatre looked up and found Trowa's green eyes.

"Guess you're right but…damn it…I wish we could get them out of here…" said Quatre. He was so upset he could have cried. The blond man started thinking of his wife…yes, he definitely needed to make it out of there alive. This was not time to play hero…

Against all his instincts he started walking and, picking up speed, found himself running after Trowa.

Sally managed to cover herself and the baby with the space suit so they could make it through the satellite's main gate to the shipper's entry safely. Heero, with a lot more difficulty, had covered Relena with another spacesuit. The haemorrhage had not stopped and she was still bleeding.

As soon as they arrived to the shipper, Heero, following Sally's instructions, took Relena to the huge spaceship's medical room. It was very basic but it had enough supplies to start working. Meanwhile Heero prepared the ship for take off.

Relena's pulse had disappeared so Sally started with the CPR. As soon the pulse was back, the American-Chinese doctor tried to stop the blood.

Heero, having finished the preparations, went to the medical room, there, he found Sally busy preparing a IV line to give Relena all the medicines she desperately needed.

"Can I do anything to help?" Heero asked feeling very useless and not knowing how to deal with the knot that tied his throat. Seeing Relena like that was killing him.

"Yes…there should be some powdered milk in that cupboard over there, if you know how to, you should prepare some milk for your son…he needs some food…" said Sally while connecting Relena to the machines that kept track of her vital signs.

Sally was almost finished and Heero was already feeding his son when Wufei and the guys entered the ship and Trowa, closing the gate, ran to the cabin to start the take off.

"Trowa, go as fast as this thing can go…if we don't get Relena to a hospital within the next hour…" started saying Sally, even though she had done all she had been able to, Relena was really far from being stable, then seeing Milliardo's and Heero's worried expression, added "Just go fast, alright?".

"We could have tried to deactivate the auto destruction device…" said Quatre not being able to cope with the gilt he was feeling.

"We had no time Quatre…you know that…" said Duo speaking for the first time in a long time.

"Quatre…we all feel awful about the whole thing but…saving Relena was a matter of national security…we all know she is irreplaceable for the peace keeping process…" said Wufei.

"This whole mission sucked anyway…" added Heero still feeding his son.

Speaking, Heero drew everyone's attention to the newborn baby. They realised that the baby had been the cause to all that mayhem, an innocent cause, of course.

Milliardo started walking to Heero and, swallowing his pride, said:

"Can I…I mean…could I…".

"Sure…you've got more experience than I do…" said Heero passing the little human being to Milliardo.

"Hello…welcome…I'm sorry you had to come to this world like this…" said Milliardo speaking with the tone he used exclusively to speak to his own son.

"I'm going to sit next to my wife…please take care of him for me…" said Heero walking towards the medical room.

"How are you going to name him?" asked Milliardo.

"I don't know yet. I'll wait for Relena to wake up…we'll choose it together…" replied Heero not even bothering turning around.

Trowa ordered everybody to sit down and prepare for the take off. The ship shook a bit and soon they were airborne. Quatre had given his permission to go at the maximum speed that the ship allowed even if it meant wrecking its engines.

Suddenly, the explosion they were all expecting. The whole satellite disintegrated itself causing a shockwave that made the whole shipper shudder.

Quatre felt his heart as heavy as a rock. They had not been able to save all those guards. He looked around himself and saw the others acting like if they didn't care. Then Duo, turning around on his seat, locked his violet eyes with the Arabian man's turquoise ones. What Quatre read on them spoke volumes. Duo felt just as sad as he did. And probably, the rest of the guys did too.

Meanwhile, Sally was still with Relena constantly checking her vital signs. Heero refused to leave his wife's side. The haemorrhage had not stopped completely but at least Relena was now getting a blood transfusion so Sally hoped that this would keep the young politician a bit more stable.

Quatre, pressing the button to open the communication's channel:

"This is the shipper W390QR calling X16700-L4 docking bay, we're in desperate need of a medical unit. I repeat, this is…".

"X16700-L4's docking bay speaking. Who are talking to?" a voice said through the speaker.

"This is Quatre Raberba Winner and we're carrying the Vice Foreign Minister Relena Peacecraft-Darlian with us. She needs the medical unit…" said Quatre trying to keep calm.

"What? You'll get your unit. We're sending it straight away. Please send us your ETA" replied the voice shocked to hear such important names in the same sentence.

"Thanks" replied Quatre sending their estimated time of arrival as instructed.

Less than half an hour later, and almost 45 minutes after they had taken off, a still unconscious Relena was transferred to an ambulance, Heero, Sally and the baby boarded the ambulance while Quatre was trying to arrange for a car to come an pick the rest up so they would get to the hospital as well.

When they arrived there, Heero was sitting there by himself. He explained to them that the doctors had taken Relena and the baby in and Sally had followed them. They were now operating Relena to stop the bleeding and they were doing further checks to the baby.

He spoke almost emotionlessly. Duo guessed that he was trying to protect himself but, for his surprise, the Japanese pilot moved towards him and, putting his head on the American pilot's shoulders, started crying silently.

Milliardo, Trowa, Quatre and Wufei stood there not knowing what to say nor do, this was the first time they had seen Heero cry. What they knew for sure was that, right now, Heero needed some space.

Duo was about to ask Heero to sit down when Sally, coming through a double door accompanied by one of the hospital's doctors, both looking as exhausted as if they had been running the marathon, said almost stuttering:

"Guys…the baby is fine and doing well…the problem is…well, we've done all we've been able to…but…".

"How is Relena, Sally?" said Heero lifting his head from Duo's shoulder showing his Prussian blue eyes full of tears.

Sally, with the saddest of voices, replied:

"She's in a coma…we don't know if she's going to wake up…I'm sorry Heero…".

END OF CHAPTER TWENTY


	21. Chapter Twenty One

A/N: Well, this is the last chapter. Don't worry though, I will write an epilogue for it that I hope I will publish before sweetangel14 goes back to school…

I have just realised that I have not thanked any of my reviewers for a long time and I am incredibly shocked of how rude I am.

**A HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU THAT HAVE READ AND REVIEWED!!!!**

Chapter Twenty One

Heero felt so sick that was afraid to speak. He feared that, if he opened his mouth he would vomit. Finally, with a gigantic effort, the Japanese man managed to ask:

"Can we…can we see her?".

"Sure…please follow me…" replied the other doctor.

Heero started walking unsure whether his legs would be able to carry him. He felt like in some kind of trance. Some kind of nightmare that would hopefully end soon and he would, like every single morning, wake up next to Relena and would realise that nothing had been real.

Milliardo was about to follow him but Duo's hand grabbed his left arm to stop him.

"Give him some time alone…" the American man said.

"But…" insisted Milliardo

"I know Relena is your sister but, Heero's her husband…and the father of her baby…just give them some space now…you'll see her later…" intervened Trowa.

Milliardo gave it up and decided to sit down next to where Quatre was. The Arabian man was unusually silent, Trowa feared that the satellite's explosion and the subsequent massacre had affected his friend a lot more than to anyone else.

Sally observed Heero while he walked away, she felt as bad as the rest of the guys. No one had ever seen Heero in such state. It was very disturbing.

"It's not your fault…I'm sure you did all you could…" said Wufei that, seeing his wife's grave look, had come next to her and put one of his arms around her shoulders in a very supportive manner. Sally laid her head on her husband's shoulder and said:

"I know but…is just that…I've never seen Heero with that expression…he looked so desperately hopeless".

"I know…neither have I…in any case, if the worst happens, we'll have to be ready to give him all our support…" replied Wufei.

"Wufei, you've really changed over this years…the old Wufei would have never said something like that…" Sally said looking up to him and giving him a small smile.

"Well…the old Wufei did not know that loving a stubborn woman like you would be so rewarding…" replied Wufei.

Sally thought that Wufei had blushed a little bit but, didn't comment it because Wufei, even this new version of him, would prefer to give up his favourite katana before admitting such a 'weak' thing like blushing.

Meanwhile, Heero sat on the chair that Sally's colleague had placed next to Relena's bed.

"You should talk to her…even if you don't think so, she can still hear you…it'll do both of you good…" said the doctor before leaving them alone.

As soon as the door was closed, Heero turned his attention back to Relena, she looked so frail and white. Through the white hospital sheets, you could still see a bump where the baby used to be.

On their way to her room, the doctor had told Heero that Relena had suffered a major internal haemorrhage and that had caused her body to have a shock. He also told him that, if Relena was still alive, was mainly because of Sally's prompt intervention.

Heero had listened to everything but had not spoken a single word. He did have lots of questions but he couldn't bring himself to speak.

Now he had the same problem. He just sat there holding Relena's small hand. Making a huge effort, he cleared his throat twice before he could start talking.

At first he did not know what to say but, as he found out, once he started he just couldn't stop the flow of words:

"Relena, although the doctor has told me you can hear me, I'm not very sure…in any case, I would like to tell you now what I should have told you a long time ago. I love you. I love you so desperately that if I lose you again…I just don't know what I'll do…Relena, we've got a son now…we are the family we've been wanting so much…we can now live a normal life…but our son needs you for this, I need you for this…please, if you can hear me, come back to me…I promise I will make it up to you…all the patience you've had with me…you never gave up and kept fighting for us…and now, I have failed you, because I wasn't able to protect you like I promised but, if…no, when you come back, I will make sure that nothing harms you ever again…I've failed once but…once is enough…now I will not fail you again…but please, come back to me… please…"

Heero found his eyes moist with new tears. It looked like he was now crying all the tears he had never cried in his whole life. Heero kept speaking to Relena, telling her about what he remembered of his troubled childhood, about the plans he had for their son…about his dreams and about his love for her…

He put his head next to his wife's on the pillow and, after a while, fell asleep still holding Relena's hand.

In the mean time, Milliardo, considering he had given Heero plenty of time, was about to get up when he saw a familiar person approaching the waiting room.

"Sally, thanks for calling me, I've come as soon as I've been able to…I thought this mission had to be a quiet one…you've blown up an entire satellite, erasing all the evidence we had, you've also violated some federal laws in the way you've searched inside the Genix building…I expect a full report from you tomorrow at nine am sharp…" said this new arrival.

"We can explain…" started Duo in a very childish manner.

"Maxwell, not now…" said Wufei not wanting to upset even more his superior.

"Lady Une, we've encountered an unexpected enemy…but this isn't the time to speak about it…if you follow me, I will take you to one of the staff rooms…" proposed Sally.

"Alright then, apart from all of you preventer officers, I would also like you three to come with us…" replied Lady Une pointing at Quatre, Trowa and Duo.

Sally lead them all to a small room and, after being granted its use by the hospital staff, asked everyone to go in. There was a table with four chairs around it and a small kitchenette. This was obviously the coffee break room.

Lady Une and Sally took two of the chairs. The other two were taken by Quatre and Milliardo. Wufei stood behind his wife's chair while Trowa did the same behind Quatre's. Duo, observing everything from the wall he was leaning against, found kind of funny the older brother attitude that Trowa had with Quatre. The funny thing was that, according to the registry, Quatre was actually older than Trowa.

Milliardo, taking the initiative, started briefing the whole affair to Lady Une. The preventers chief listened carefully to all that Milliardo had to say. When he was explaining the fact that they had to leave all the guards in the satellite before its disintegration, Quatre interrupted him saying:

"It was my fault…I should have done something about it…".

Trowa was about to tell Quatre for the umpteenth time that it had not been his sole fault but Wufei preceded him:

"Quatre, you cannot help some things…you really ought to stop blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong…".

Quatre winced at this. He knew very well about this fault in his personality, Dorothy had reminded him many times he should try get tougher but, it still hurt being told off like a kid about it…

"I'm not particularly interested in who did what but rather, I would love to know how did you manage to beat mobile dolls that were made of gundanium and…why did you need such a big carrier…" asked Lady Une.

Quatre was about to reply but, this time Trowa was faster.

"It was my idea…Quatre had kept some of the blue prints so, after the Mars incident, I decided to ask Quatre to rebuild the gundams…We've made an exact copy of 01, 02, 03, 04 and 05 although, thankfully, we only needed to use 01 and 02" said Trowa pressing with his hand Quatre's left shoulder so the blond man would not say anything.

"WHAT? Trowa, do you realise that what you and Quatre have done is actually illegal? It is actually punished very severely…" said Lady Une astonished.

"We know…and we're prepared to pay the price…" replied Quatre.

"Well, this is not the time nor the place…besides, as head of the disarming committee, it's Relena's job to decide what to do with you…not mine…" said Lady Une, then she added, "In any case, the important thing is that we have in our custody the director of Genix and, thanks to you, we won't have to worry about the doctor anymore...I'll wait for the full written report so we can analyse all the data you've gathered…also, I've learnt that Relena has been freed but regretfully she's in a coma. I'm going to order that the best doctors are sent here…I would also like, as a personal favour, of course, to be kept informed about her conditions…".

"Sure…" replied Sally.

"Well, unfortunately, I have other matters to deal with so, I'm going to have to head back to ESUN. Preventer Chang, I would like you to stay here with your wife and clear up as much of this mess as possible. Preventer Wind, I believe you've got a family to take care of and a mission in Mars waiting for you…although I will grant you a few days off if you wish to stay here with your sister. Quatre, you and Trowa, will have keep yourselves free may you be required to attend a meeting regarding the gundams…of course, the gundams will have to be kept where they've been up to now since maximum discretion is needed…" said Lady Une getting up.

"As much as I hate to leave Heero in these conditions, I really need to go back home…I need to take care of my wife and, I have to reopen Heero's school…specially since we don't know whether he'll be coming back anytime soon…so I would appreciate a ride back to earth…can I come with you?" asked Duo speaking to Lady Une.

"Sure, be at the colony's docking bay in half an hour sharp…" replied Lady Une leaving the room.

"I also have to go back to my businesses, I've been away for too long now…" commented Quatre.

"I need to go back to the circus too, Catherine and Midii will be worried…" added Trowa.

Soon after the meeting was over, Quatre and Trowa left with the carrier and the gundams. They would keep them in Quatre's secret hangar till a decision regarding them was taken. Quatre hoped that this decision would be taken by Relena.

Duo and Milliardo went to Relena's room. They found Heero still sitting on the chair with his head next to Relena's and holding her hand. Someone had brought the baby to the room and it was there next to the bed. Looking at the picture it was just like another couple that had just had their first child.

Duo shook him gently. Thankfully, it didn't take much to wake him up.

"What?" said Heero then, turning around, he saw Relena still unconscious and his face went all sombre again.

"I've just come to tell you that, as much as I would like to stay, I need to go back home…" said Duo hoping that Heero would understand.

"Sure…you've got to take care of Hilde…Duo, do me a favour…take really good care of her and never let anything harm her…when you love somebody, they should always come first…" replied Heero.

This shocked both Milliardo and Duo. Heero's constant personality changes never stopped amazing them. Relena had really worked a miracle with this guy…Duo wished he could kill that bastard of a doctor again for doing this to his best friend and the only girl that had managed to bring his humanity back. Praying to God for the first time in his life, he hoped that Relena would be alright.

"Ok then…I hope I will see the three of you soon…" said Duo but Heero had redirected his attention back to Relena and wasn't listening.

Milliardo stood there while Duo was closing the door behind him. He stayed there silently watching the newly formed family.

"You really love her, don't you?" Milliardo asked suddenly.

"Yes. I love her" replied Heero, if he was shocked because of the question, he did not show it.

"Then my job here is over…I've got to go back to Mars…I have a family there to protect, I trust you'll now take care of yours…" said Milliardo leaving the room. He was not going to stay there, like he had said, his job protecting Relena was over. Not that he had ever done a really good job either for he considered himself a failure as a brother. Now that he knew that Heero really loved his sister, he could go back home with a clear conscious.

Heero was left in the room with mixed feelings. He would never understand Milliardo Peacecraft no matter how hard he tried. It was easier when he fought against Zechs Marquise, at least there was not too many differences between them…but, Milliardo was an enigma.

Heero left his wife's side for a second so he could get their baby in his arms. He had liked it a lot when he held his baby while feeding him back in the shipper. He stared at the baby in wonder, he looked just like Heero but, when he opened his little eyes, you could see his mother's kind, light blue eyes. This little person was partially his. For a person used to kill, creating a life was something totally new, something Heero Yuy liked it very much.

He was so concentrated on the baby that he did not even notice a very feeble sound coming from the bed.

"Heero…".

END OF CHAPTER TWENTY ONE


	22. Epilogue

EPILOGUE

It had been two weeks since Relena had regained consciousness, the first time she had been awake only for a few minutes. Heero had taken the chance to tell her the three words she had not yet heard from him.

"Relena! You're awake! I was so scared…I…thought you were going to leave me and…I would have never told you…" Heero said not caring whether his sleeping baby would wake up.

"Tell me what, Heero?" asked Relena with a very weak voice.

"That I love you…I always have but I've been a dick not telling you before…" replied Heero sad.

She looked at him amazed, then, seeing him so depressed, tried to joke about it:

"Alright…now I know I'm dead and I'm in Heaven…" .

Relena fainted right after saying those few words, probably even speaking had been too much effort for her. Sally, after being literally dragged there by a highly distressed Heero and checking on her patient, had told him not too worry, Relena was no longer in a coma, she was just sleeping. She and the doctors couldn't really tell him how come Relena had managed to recover so quickly.

They said it had to be some kind of miracle. That gave Heero an idea.

The next time Relena woke up, Heero, introduced the baby to his mother. Relena tried to lift her hand to touch him and with Heero's assistance, she managed to sit up a little bit so she could see the baby better. Then Relena asked:

"What's his name?".

"I haven't decided yet…I wanted you to choose it with me…" replied Heero.

"Well…what do you think about…I don't know…William?" suggested Relena.

"William? Is not bad…but, I was thinking of something different…you know…everything around us has always been very chaotic…first the wars, then my stupid reluctance to accept my feelings, then we got kidnapped and now all of this…even so, we've been able to stay together and…now, we've made this…" Heero said looking down at their baby, then added, "that's why I think that…the best name for our baby is Kiseki…".

"Kiseki? What does it mean? Is it Japanese?" asked Relena puzzled.

"Yes…it's the Japanese word for 'miracle'…after all, you, me…this baby…us…it's all a miracle…we're a family now…I've never thought I would see the day I would have my own family…I still can't believe it…but, what I want you to believe is that I give you my word I will do my best to take care of you two" said Heero very serious.

"Heero, I've always believed in you…you know that. So… Kiseki it is then…I actually like it…Kiseki Yuy…sounds good…better than William Yuy anyway…" said Relena smiling.

"Kiseki Yuy-Peacecraft" said Heero taking the baby in his arms and smiling at him.

Seeing that smile, Relena thought that, if it was possible, she was falling even more in love with her husband.

Finally, after another week, Sally and the doctors from the hospital decided that Relena was strong enough to cope with the shuttle flight back to Earth.

Sally and Wufei, who had been taking care of the investigation and writing the report for Lady Une, were going to come back with them. During the flight, and while Relena had been sleeping, Wufei had told Heero and Sally what had been happening with the investigation. Genix's director was now in jail accused of high treason and to complot against a political figure. He knew what they were going to do to Relena for he had actually been part of the whole project. Genix had been used as a cover for the real cloning project. The satellite's remains had been examined thoroughly and all lead were being followed so they would not leave anything out of it. Wufei told Heero that the entire thing was over.

As soon as she was settled in New Port City's hospital, Relena enquired Sally about what had happened during her absence. Sally, not wanting to lie, explained everything to her with Heero's and Wufei's help. Relena was, to say the least, shocked when she found out about what Quatre and Trowa had done but was not as upset as they had all predicted. She just asked for Lady Une to come to pay a visit to her as soon as the Preventer's chief could make it. Lady Une was there that very same day.

"As much as I hate bothering you with this things while you're still recovering, we really need to decide what should we do…I've already blocked Quatre's and Trowa's ID cards so they will not leave their respective colonies till we decide on the punishment that will be imposed" said Lady Une after exchanging some pleasantries with the young politician.

"Punishment? Lady Une…I know that I'm the leader of the disarming movement, and I was not happy at all to hear that the gundams were back but…it's the second time I get kidnapped for non political reasons…Two years ago, I got kidnapped so I could help with a sick project to destroy both Earth and the colonies…this time, they wanted my baby to make an army of perfect soldiers…these two 'incidents' have made me think that, maybe, we should actually have some kind of back up…Although I would have never thought I would ever say something like this, I believe that…under some circumstances, the gundams may come useful…for this, I have decided to keep them. With two conditions, one is that I don't want to know where they will be kept, that is for you and the gundam pilots to decide. The second condition is that I would like all of you to have some kind of device that will allow you to, in case the occasion calls for it, destroy them at once…I trust you'll deal with it as soon as possible, also, I would like you to give their ID's back to Quatre and Trowa".

Relena finished her speech feeling a bit tired. She had actually thought about it during the whole day. Unfortunately, this was yet another sign that her total pacifism idea was only a utopia. Something that could not exist till EVERYONE in this word would not think like she did. Her mission was to, slowly, convince everyone that the way forward was a peaceful, weapon-free world where mutual respect and kindness would replace all the diffidence and hatred the world was filled with.

Relena knew that, sooner or later, people would realise that by themselves…they were already doing so but…she would never stop working for this goal, even if it took her entire life to achieve it. The fact of having those five, extremely brave men, helping her with her cause, not to mention Lady Une, Noin, Sally and the rest of the people that truly wanted this peace to last, made Relena feel very fortunate.

Lady Une left the room promising to organise things as soon as possible, she would take care of communicating Quatre and Trowa her decision.

A couple of days later, Heero was sitting, next to Relena on the couch placed near the hospital bed since Relena had been allowed to get up from bed for the first time when, suddenly, the door burst open to show the head of an overexcited Duo.

"I'm going to be a daddy…I'm going to be a daddy…Hilde is giving birth!!" he shouted. His smile was so huge that it almost reached his ears.

"Well, shouldn't you be with her then?" asked Heero being his practical self.

"AH! Shit! Yes…oh fuck, she's going to kill me!" replied Duo, his smile fading only slightly. He closed the door and left running.

"I'm going to be a daddy!! I'm going to be a daddy!!" Duo chanted while rushing to the room where his wife was.

"Where the fuck have you been?" asked a very upset Hilde.

"Sorry baby, I went to tell Heero and Relena about…you know…we're going to be parents!!" said Duo so overjoyed he couldn't stay still.

"NO?! Really?? I didn't bloody notice!!!" Hilde shouted at him getting even more upset.

Finally, after a while, Hilde gave birth to her baby.

"It's a gorgeous baby girl!" announced the doctor giving the baby girl already wrapped with some cloth to a very exhausted but happy Hilde.

Duo just stood there staring at, the now two, most important women in his life. He leaned closer to see his new baby daughter's little tiny face when the baby girl decided to open her eyes.

Duo, already overwhelmed by all the emotions in his heart, seeing those two beautiful violet eyes that looked so much like his, started feeling weak when, all the sudden, everything went black.

"DOCTOR!! What's wrong with my husband?" asked a very worried Hilde seeing Duo collapse and hit the ground.

"Oh…don't worry…he's just fainted! It's normal…it happens very often…" replied a nurse checking that Duo had not hurt himself during the fall.

"Oh!! Not again!!" Hilde said, she wanted to be angry but she couldn't, after all, this one of the things that she liked the most about her husband. She only managed to smile and say:

"Baby, meet your father, is the one on the floor!".

END OF ONCE IS ENOUGH PART TWO

A/N: It's finished, (sob, sob…) Oh well…I hope you liked it. Sorry for the last scene, after so much drama and romanticism, and with Duo in it, I thought a touch of humour would be a nice way to finish it…

Anyway…I would like to say a huge, gigantic, enormous thank you to everybody that has read and reviewed this. I would like to mention some people but I don't want to risk forgetting someone so I won't.

Take care and be good,

SANAE


End file.
